Under Suspicion
by EmberXMystery
Summary: Someone has been committing murders and Shiro and his team have evidence that points to Keith. Keith doesn't know what is happening and is forced to relive past trauma. More is going on than the team can tell. BAU/ Criminal Minds setting. Everyone is on the team except Keith who left a while ago and is now suspected of committing murders. -Lance is a new recruit and gets training
1. Unwanted Return

Note:Hello. This is my first time writing a slowburn AU. This chapter ended up being longer than I anticipated but I really wanted to make a good first chapter. Ultimately, I don't want to just write fluffy fanfiction for this story. I want to write a good story that happens to have some really fluffy and adorable parts.

I did use the Keith and Shiro are adopted brothers headcanon because it fit well with the story.

Mostly this story will be Klance but also some shatt. Pidge is shipped with sarcasm. Originally this was Shallura but I never really liked that ship and I edited all of that out of the story and replaced it with Shatt. Sorry, no Adam. :/

This isn't going to be that 'bad' of a story, in that, there is some language from Keith, Pidge, and Lance, and there might be descriptions of violence. There will also be self-harm mentioned at least and possibly more but all for the sake of making a good story with a lot of plot development and character development. It won't be super sexual though.

Oh, and all of the characters are aged up, Keith, Lance, and Pidge and Hunk are in their twenties. Allura, Shiro, and Coran are in thier thirties. (So is Matt).

I tried to keep everyone in character as best as I could and that will improve as the story progresses. This chapter alone is already 1.5 times the size of my longest complete story, so it took me a while to edit and write. If something seems really out of place, feel free to comment and I can fix it :)

Really quick, Since I don't explicitly say it, the BAU is the Behavioral Analysis Unit. (the FBI specifically for serial killers)

Unsub is an Unknown Suspect

As for jobs, Shiro is the chief.

Pidge is the tech.

Hunk, Allura, and Lance are profilers.

And Coran is a profiler but he mostly deals with publicity stuff and getting the cases. (If you have ever seen Criminal Minds, then he plays JJ's role.)

Note: I am not apart of the FBI and am just generalizing. I know that I got some facts wrong, but it fit better for the story this way.

Well, here goes nothing! I hope you enjoy!

* * *

Keith~

Keith was having a seriously fucked up day.

Sure, he had woken up fine. Eaten breakfast (a single protein bar), and faintly tamed his wild hair before finding some clean(ish) clothes on the ground, and heading out for work.

He had been fully ready for another boring, monotone, tedious day.

He had just started driving when he heard the annoying iPhone jingle signaling a text. He glanced at the text. It was from Shiro.

 **Shiro: Can we talk?**

 _That's odd,_ Keith thought, _why does he want to talk to me?_

 **Shiro: Now.**

Keith became extremely concerned. His brother never wanted to talk to him— or at least, he never _did_ talk to him.

Keith decided to pull over and had just come to a stop— his old, red-ish honda rattling to a halt— when Shiro called.

Keith grumbled to himself as he picked up the phone and swiped the answering command. "Yes? What do you want, Shiro?" Keith didn't hesitate, not wanting to draw their conversation out.

"Keith?" Shiro's voice crackled through the phone. He sounded… worried. Keith's mind immediately started running through all of the things he had done recently to try to figure out if he had somehow upset Shiro in any way or if he could have made him worried for some reason. "Keith, I need you to listen to me." He paused for barely a breath before continuing in a rush, "There is no time to explain but you are going to be taken in. Please, please, go with them. I promise that I will sort everything out but that will be much easier if you just go along."

"Shiro?" Keith was highly confused. "What the hell? What the actual hell? I don't know what you're talking about and I don't know that I want to."

"Keith, you _have_ to listen to me. Go along with them but don't say you did anything. Just… be honest."

Keith sighed and rubbed his forehead in exasperation. "Shiro, I'm really sick of this kind of shit. I don't care if this is some way to get me back on the team. I'm not coming back. I—" Suddenly, Keith looked up as he heard the faint whine of police sirens. He looked at his mirror to see a police car pulling into a park behind him. Another one swerved around and parked in front of his car boxing him in.

Keith closed his eyes focusing on breathing in and out. A million foul things swirled through his mind but he erased them with a deep breath, raised his phone back to his ear, and said very definitely, "Shiro, from the bottom of my heart, fuck you."

He locked his phone, ending the call abruptly and threw it to the passenger's seat. He was seething. He didn't know what his brother had to do with whatever was happening but there was no reason that he should be noted by the police.

He heard the knock on his door before he had fully composed himself but Keith opened his eyes and tried to force a smile, though he suspected it looked more like a grimace. "Hello, officer," he said politely. He could hear the sarcasm and annoyance dripping through his own voice. The officer in front of him wasn't in any kind of uniform and, instead, she was wearing nice and simple form-fitting blouse and slacks, both grey with white undertones. Her skin was a pleasant warm-brown that was lightened by the silver-white of her hair that could _not_ be natural. Her eyes were steely with an air of false pleasantries. "What seems to be the matter?" Keith asked with an extremely forced smile.

"Mr. Kogane, correct?" she asked, not even bothering to answer Keith's questions. Her voice was slightly accented making him feel as though he were under even more scrutiny.

"Yes…" he said apprehensively. He glanced at his phone wondering what Shiro could have been talking about. _Go along with it, eh?_ Keith wanted to defy the officer and start running and lying but he was also curious. Plus, Shiro cared about Keith and genuinely wanted to protect him. Keith knew _that_ all too well.

"I'm terribly sorry, but you have to come with us," the police officer said, her eyes not looking the least bit sorry.

"What for?" Keith asked. He refused to leave if she couldn't give him a reason, no matter what Shiro had told him.

"We suspect you of having committed the recent crimes."

Keith's breath caught. He tried not to let his voice quiver as he spoke, "I don't know what crimes you are talking about."

She quirked an eyebrow at him, "The ones all over the news. I'm sure you have heard about the lives that have been taken."

Keith swallowed forcefully. He wished he had never gotten up this morning. That would have made things so much easier. He would have loved to have one more day where his life wasn't in danger.

"Now, if you will please step out of the car."

Rubbing his eyes one last time, Keith groaned as he opened the door to his car. He didn't miss her hand clenched on her gun as he slammed the door to his car closed.

Keith turned and caught sight of another officer— a man in a royal blue suit with shockingly orange hair and a stunningly odd mustache. This officer was pointing a gun at him.

Keith watched as the officer before him removed her hand reluctantly from her gun, to grab a pair of handcuffs. Keith raised his hands and she turned him around, lowering his arms and snapping the locks shut in the process.

The officer shoved him forcefully into the back of her car and Keith had to bite back all of the remarks running through his head. Especially those with choice words.

The officer got into the front and started driving. "Do you even have the authority to arrest me?"

"I am an FBI agent in the BAU and you fit our profile and suspicion."

"Oh, what?" Keith was getting more annoyed by the minute, "So now any introverted, slightly odd person who maybe, I don't know, has longer hair is accused of committing a murder?"

"Please, we just want to question you. Yes, we are suspecting you of commiting the crimes, but we have yet to convict you so, please."

Keith rolled his eyes and tried to sit back into the seat but failed because of his hands behind his back. Instead, he folded over and leaned his head against his knees. He wanted nothing more than to call Shiro and ask him what the hell was happening.

The car went dark as they passed through a tunnel. Keith inhaled sharply, knowing they were close. He grimaced remembering all of the times he had driven his car, much like the officer in front of him, through this tunnel. Almost every day he would drive through it. He remembered all of the times when he was first starting out that he had feared this tunnel— everything was too dark for too long for his liking. Plus, many of the underground lights would flicker ominously.

Mere minutes later, the car rolled to a gentle stop and the officer opened Keith's door. Keith was hauled out by a forceful grip on his shoulder. He blinked rapidly as he tried to adjust his eyes to the light. The female officer continued to hold his shoulder as she directed him inside the office, though Keith knew the building and didn't need her direction.

As soon as he walked through the front doors, it was like he was being punched by the past and it _hurt._ He had made it a point not to visit Shiro at the office. It had taken him long enough to even meet with Shiro for coffee. He would have thought that he would notice all of the changes, but he could only see all of the continuities. Keith closed his eyes, focusing on his breathing instead, his forehead creased in concentration. He never wanted to come back here. He couldn't. He just _couldn't._

"Keith? Keith is that you?" a voice called.

 _Please,_ he begged silently, _Please go away. I don't—_

"It is! Pidge, get in here! Keith is back !"

He was forced to open his eyes when he felt the sharp thwack of Hunk's hand on his back. "How are you, buddy?" Hunk asked politely. Keith looked up at the big guy, trying not to see the nightmares that danced before his eyes. Hunk wore a casual yellow t-shirt with a nice, green sports-jacket that went down and wrapped around his thumbs. He noticed that a thin cloth was wrapped around his forehead. Keith focused on his bright smile that had a way of relaxing anyone lucky enough to see it. His big brown eyes sparkled with intelligence and kindness. Keith tried to shrug nonchalantly, but it was hard to do with the firm grip on his shoulder and the tension he felt, "Eh, I've been better." He nodded back behind him.

Hunk's smile fell as though he were just noticing that Keith was handcuffed. His gaze shifted to the officer behind Keith, "Allura, what is the meaning of this? Why is Keith in handcuffs?"

"Wait," the officer behind Keith— Allura— said, "You know this guy?"

"Yeah!" Hunk cried excitedly. "He used to work here and he's Shiro's little brother, y'know, the one he's always telling stories about." Keith wondered what stories Shiro told the others about him, but it wasn't his greatest concern at the moment.

Allura looked confused, "But… his name…?"

Before the conversation could progress any further, Keith and Allura, who had the misfortune of standing behind Keith, were knocked to the ground by an aggressive green ball. "KEITH!"

"Oof!" Keith said in response. It took him a moment to regain his breath after being knocked to the ground, on top of Allura, and having the life squeezed out of him. Once his vision cleared, he was able to see the round glasses that framed the amber, owlish eyes of Pidge. Their messy bedheaded hair tickled his chin as they hugged him again. "Keith!" Finally, they sat up and gave his face a foot of space. "Why the fuck haven't you visited?" Keith smiled as Pidge seemed to notice either his handcuffs, or Allura underneath him. They got off of Keith, allowing him to get off of the breathless Allura, then they immediately glared at him, pointing up accusingly, "And why the fuck are you handcuffed?"

"Well, Pidge," Keith said, letting his voice ooze with annoyed sarcasm, "I don't know. I was thinking that maybe you had just decided to say hello." It was easier to talk to Pidge's joking sarcastic attitude than Hunk's kindness. With Pidge, Keith didn't picture any violence. "And you couldn't text because Shiro took your phone again."

"Bastard," Pidge whispered with a snort. "He's never getting it a second time." Pidge's tiny yet incredibly powerful glare turned to Hunk and then to Allura, who was still breathless, "Do either of you idiots know why this idiot is chained up?"

"Beats me," Hunk said with a shrug.

"He…" Allura huffed, still trying to regain her breath, "is suspected… of committing… the recent crimes."

"Oh?" Pidge asked, quirking an eyebrow. They turned towards Keith, "Have you been bad recently?"

"Not that I know of," Keith sighed, "But who knows. Maybe I forgot about my crimes over the course of the day."

"Yeah, that must be it," Pidge agreed.

"Okay," Allura said forcefully, "It is time I took Keith away."

"Aw," Pidge and Hunk cried simultaneously, "Okay," Hunk said, "but we're talking to Shiro about this and we're gonna figure this out."

"Uh, huh," Pidge added, "and if he won't talk to me, then I'll just hack his files." Keith was caught between concern and laughter as Allura pulled him to his feet and started forcing him through the office. They passed through a couple of rooms and large doorways. Keith tried not to look too hard, not wanting to see anything else. He wanted to try to think of this as _not_ a return but as visiting someplace new. While in handcuffs.

They entered a small room with two chairs around a table in the middle of it. A large frame of clearly one-sided glass was inlaid on one wall. Keith was shoved into sitting in one of the chairs. His hands were uncuffed only to have one of his legs cuffed to the chair leg. Keith looked up and gave Allura a menacing glare.

"We will be along to interview you after we go through your car."

"What?" Keith blanched, "That fast? Do you even have a search warrant?"

Allura pulled out a folded slip of paper from her back pocket. Of course it was a search warrant. Why wouldn't it be?

Allura had the audacity to give Keith an apologetic smile before leaving the room and locking the door. Keith knew that someone was probably watching though the one-sided mirror so he glared at it, stuck out his tongue, and flipped whoever was there off.

He hoped some one had seen. Maybe Shiro or Allura. Even Pidge would have at least gotten a kick out of it.

Instantly his heart plummeted. He couldn't get Pidge's frantic voice from the other end of the phone out of his head. He saw the blood that ran down Hunk's forehead. He saw the blood that ran down Shiro's face and dripped off of his chin. He remembered the way his friend Matt had stepped back, panicked as he was the first to see… everything. His choked sobs were all that Keith could hear as he stared out the window.

* * *

Shiro~

Shiro pounded his fist on the table, yelling in outrage. Allura and Coran flinched backwards. He hated that terrified expression he saw on their faces, but he couldn't stand Keith being in prison. It was driving him to his breaking point. "No! I won't just let him sit there wondering what the heck is happening."

"What _is_ happening?" Hunk asked, walking into the room and setting his hot chocolate onto the table. "Why is Keith in our prison?"

Shiro closed his eyes, collecting his rare-to-show temper, "This morning, Allura and I were watching the surveillance tapes and we found Keith at all of the scenes just before the murders, absent during the murders, and walking quickly away from the scenes after the murders."

"So what?" Pidge, who had been behind Hunk, snorted. "He probably just didn't want a killer chasing him."

"We have to follow up on all suspects," Allura said, fumbling for words, "And when we followed up on Keith he not only wasn't going to work as regularly, but he was carrying a knife with him that can just barely see it on the tapes. And… we found the knife in his car."

"Still," Hunk asked, "Why is that enough of a reason to take him into custody?"

"Because," Allura stared but words failed her. Coran spoke up calmly, "there was a strange symbol written on the victim's bodies with their blood. We… the knife Keith has has the same symbol on the hilt."

Pidge pursed their lips, "Yeah, that does look bad."

"Please, let me talk to him!" Shiro said with as much calmness as he could, though he didn't think it was enough. "Yes, I'll interview him. I know how to read him better than all of you. I know what will make him squirm— should it come to that." Shiro felt awful for putting Keith in prison. He doubted anyone would have noticed if he hadn't have pointed Keith out and made a comment about his knife.

"No," Allura said firmly. "You are direct family, neither you, nor his friends Hunk and Pidge should be allowed to talk to him. You guys have already shown bias by not wanting to suspect him"

"Please, let me at least tell him what's happening!" Allura shook her head, her arms crossed across her chest. "I just started to built up a good relationship with Keith, Allura. Please don't make me break it by him thinking that I think that he killed someone!"

"That's why you can't talk to him," Allura said back. "You don't think he even has the possibility to have committed the crimes."

"Because there is _no possibility_." He looked back to Hunk and Pidge for support. They both frowned at him, clearly seeing Allura's view on the issue. How could they think Keith would just… break like that? "Please," Shiro pleaded with them, "I just want to see him. I want to talk to him."

Hunk walked towards him settling his hand heavily on Shiro's shoulder. "Chief, I think you should sit this one out. At least for now. Maybe another time, but to start, we want to get information."

"And I can get you information," Shiro said desperately. "We need him to be comfortable."

"Shiro," Pidge said, "you know that Keith is good at guarding his emotions. He is probably most trained to blocking you out. But I don't think Allura would be a good idea, either. He's pretty pissed at her for abducting him this morning."

"So, what?" Allura scoffed, "You're saying _you_ should do the interview?"

"Oh, dear god, no!" Pidge cried. "Keith and I would get nothing done the entire time. I was thinking someone his own age though. Not you old folks," they pointed with their thumb at Coran, Allura, and Shiro. "Someone who he doesn't know and who can keep the mood lighthearted."

"You mean Lance?" Hunk asked incredulously. "He's so new though…"

"Exactly," they smiled devilishly, "he would surprise Keith so much that Keith might just let some information go. Plus, he might make Keith the most comfortable out of the three new recruits we have. And I'm dying to see his reaction to Lance."

"Or he might just annoy the snot out of Keith," Hunk said shrugging.

"True," Pidge said. "Still, I think he would be better than the people who abducted him and put him in prison."

"Okay fine," Shiro said, "I'll go tell him."

"Tell him what?" Lance asked, walking into the conference room while holding a cup of coffee. Everyone was silent. "What'd I miss?"

* * *

Keith~

Finally! Keith pulled his head up from the table as he heard the door open. Inside walked a tall young boy who was wearing a light grey t-shirt with a greenish brown jacket and blue jeans. He closed the door and then turned towards Keith and sat down. His hair was a short, mousy brown and his eyes were a deep ocean blue that shone like the rising sun on the horizon of the sea. He had to be in his twenties— around Keith's age.

"So," he said, cocking one eyebrow up, "You're brother asked me to talk to you. He wants you to know that he doesn't think that you committed the murders and he is doing everything he can to help you, but his hands are pretty tied."

Keith rolled his eyes. "Yeah, well, my hands were literally tied this morning so I know how he feels."

The boy stared at Keith, "Personally, I don't see how someone with such a bad haircut could be smart enough to get away with three murders for even this long. I mean, really? A mullet? I would've thought that this killer was some kind of cool badass. Especially given the way Shiro talks about you."

"Well, at least my looks don't make me guilty as well," Keith huffed. "May I ask your name O'high and mighty interviewer?"

"Lance," the boy said cooly. "The name's Lance."

Keith snorted.

"What?" Lance asked defensively.

"Nothing, can we get on with this interview?"

"Fine," Lance muttered. "What do you know about the murders?"

"Only what was on the news."

"Nothing more?"

"Nope."

"How can that be? You were at the scene of the crimes?" Lance quirked his eyebrow again.

"It's called: having a life. You should try it sometime," Keith remarked, rather proud of himself for the comment.

Lance's gaze settled into a glare. "Oh? And what would you know of having a life?"

"More than you!" Keith shouted back childishly. He knew he was acting poorly, but his day was such shit that he had stopped caring.

"YO!" they heard Pidge yelling and banging through the one-sided-mirror, "BACK TO WORK!"

"Yeah, yeah," Lance muttered, looking down at the single paper he had laid on the desk, "Why were you at the scenes of the crimes? Starting first with Moon Mall."

"I was bored," Keith shrugged, "I decided to go eat some lunch and look at a couple of stores. Then, as I was leaving as I saw a scene happening in the parking lot. I walked over to see what all the commotion was about and at my first spying of blood, I ran."

"Why?" Lance asked, his voice genuinely curious.

"Because, I don't like it. Is that abnormal?"

"Most humans have an innate sadism that comes from their curiosity."

"Well," Kieth huffed, "I'm not 'most humans.'"

"In that case," Lance continued, "Why did you run from all three crime scenes? Did you happen to think anything about how they were related? Did you happen to think about how they all happened near you?"

 _Just be honest._ Shiro's words echoed through Keith's mind. He took a deep breath to try to still his rising anger. "Look, Lance, I ran because I wanted nothing to do with the cases. Sure I thought they were related, but that just gave me more incentive to leave. I thought 'well shit. I hope the police don't catch me.' and look where that got me."

Lance raised a suspicious eyebrow, "'I hope the police don't catch me?' Kogane, that is awfully suspicious."

"You know what, Lance," Keith said, wishing he could stand up dramatically but he knew that with the cuff, if he tried, it wouldn't go as smoothly as he wanted. Instead, he settled for leaning forward to glare at Lance as though he were about to pounce, "I've found that I don't give a shit about what you profile me as. The others will have to come in to do this all over again anyways. So if you think I'm a criminal, well, maybe you'll be too afraid of getting hurt to come back."

"Wha-What do you mean? I'm not afraid of you,," Lance asked paling and visibly retreating.

"Ah, clearly," Keith said, leaning back with a smirk, "You have never been profiled. If you had, you wouldn't have flinched backwards from me. You would have stayed stone-faced and cool minded." Keith watched as Lance forced his face to relax into easy going placidity. "You have to be new at this, or I wouldn't be getting to you. Also, your questions are pre-written— not created on the spot to intimidate me. Even if the questions are the same, your paper gives me reassurance. Plus, clearly, you are quite young and quite new because, I've never seen you before in my life. Let me guess, you're the coffee guy?" Keith took pleasure in watching the horror flick through Lance's eyes as he struggled to keep the calm facade.

"Psh! I am just… not that good with hard criminals yet!" Lance's voice cracked as he tried to defend himself.

"Uh huh. Now," Keith folded his arms across his chest, his confidence only growing, "How many cases, exactly, have you been a part of? It shouldn't take you long to count them. Unless, of course, you failed math along with… let me guess… history?"

Keith watched as the sweat grew on his brow and dripped down the side of his face. "No," Lance muttered, "I— I've done more!"

"Face it," Keith said, taking all of his malice out on Lance in that moment, "You are worthless to this team. They were fine before and they are fine now. You are just an entertaining pawn to them."

Lance backed away, standing up and almost falling backwards over his chair as he did so. Keith watched him blink rapidly to try to clear away the tears forming in his eyes. "I—" Lance tried to croak out.

Suddenly, the door banged open. Keith stood up in surprise. Shiro was inside, holding Lance by the shoulders in a moment. Keith hadn't seen his brother in weeks— almost a couple of months. The red line across his nose had faded to a dull pink though it was still clearly visible unlike Hunk's hidden scars. His hair had that noticeable white shock that Keith was consistently surprised Shiro never dyed. The most surprising thing to Keith, though— the thing that caused him to retreat, to cower like a little child— was the glare in Shiro's eyes. He turned his head from Lance to glare at Keith with more force than Keith had seen in a long while.

"Keith," Shiro bit out the name like it was poison or a weapon in itself. Keith flinched, his eyes wide in terror. "I don't know what to say to you." Shiro bit his lip, closed his eyes and shook his head with disgust. "I'm really disappointed in you."

Keith was silent. He swore he could hear the dust settling. Shiro held Lance up, Lance hiding his face in Shiro's shoulder. They walked out of the room slamming the door behind them.

Keith stood stunned as the sudden silence settled deafeningly over the room. He didn't know what to say. Keith turned around, the one cuff on his left ankle stopping him from moving.

He threw his hands through his hair furiously. "ARGH!" Keith cried out in anguish. _I'm such an idiot!_ Keith didn't even know how to feel or what to think. He was so angry at himself because _he_ was the idiot. He was the one who had blown up. _Again._

The look on Shiro's face, the first one Keith had seen in months, had been of pure hatred— no, pure disappointment. Keith threw his hands away from his head in utter rage. He reached across the table, not even caring just needing to vent his anger on _something._ He knocked the chair that Lance had been sitting in to the ground. It clattered in an echo of sudden noise that surprised Keith. The sound rang in his ears as he sat down numbly, staring at it.

He wasn't mad at Lance. He was mad at himself and what he used to be. He hated the idea that there were more young, unsuspecting people out there that were _eager_ to have a job like this. Innocent people who didn't deserve to see all of the cruelties the world had to offer. He saw the young twinkle— the naïve hope in Lance's eyes and it made Keith want to protect it. He knew that twinkle wouldn't be there forever. He knew that it would fade with each cold dead pair of eyes that would stare at him. He knew that it would fade with each uncaught criminal. With each unsolved case. With each lost victim.

Keith had already experienced all of that; he didn't want to watch someone else experience it. Same went for Allura and that mustached guy from the car. He knew they were newer to this group and he didn't want to see them fall.

It had broken his heart— shattered it— when he had seen Hunk grimacing in pain. Even this morning he recognized the subtle effort it took for him to not break down every day and to keep that easy-going smile on his face.

Keith buried his head in his hands. He wanted to pick up Lance's chair. He wanted to pick Lance up from whatever dark hole Keith had plunged him down into, but both were too far out of his reach.

"I'm sorry," Keith whispered under his breath. "I didn't mean for things to get so out of hand."

He felt the cool tears that slipped out of his eyes and spread across his fingers as he tried to shake the memories away, as he tried to forget. As he tried to shove the memories back into the vault in his mind.

* * *

~Shiro

Shiro was seething with rage.

He had been watching Keith and Lance's interactions and had been pleasantly pleased when they seemed to almost be getting along. Keith had his usual distance but he was opening up more than Shiro would have expected. Keith had always had strong walls around him but after that case… it had seemed like the walls were new and they only had stronger fortifications.

Shiro held Lance in the conference room. He hadn't let anyone else come in, knowing that Lance needed space. Shiro rubbed his back and whispered soothingly.

"Lance, he didn't mean it," Shiro said forcefully for the fifth time.

"But why would he say something like that? Especially when he was so right about everything else." Lance looked at shiro, his blue eyes shone with tears. "How did he read me like I'm an open book? I'm not."

Shiro sighed, "Because Keith is the best profiler we've had in a long time. He can't interact with people to save his life but he's observant and really good at reading people."

"All of what he read about me is true," Lance said, his voice cracking slightly. "So I must be an awful profiler that you guys keep around because you either have to or because you have taken pity on me and I'm a joke."

"Lance, that's not true."

Lance tore himself out of Shiro's arms and stood up, shoving his hands into his pockets, "No, Shiro. I know I'm worthless. That's why I got this job. I wanted to _do_ something with my life. Otherwise, without this job, I'm nothing."

"Lance," Shiro said, matching Lance's forceful tone. He stood, wanting to be on Lance's level, "You got some of the highest marks in your class. You have a great eye with a gun and can shoot from 30 yards away and still hit your target. You were one of the most perceptive in your class, and you are great at talking to people."

Lance shook his head, "You know why I was in the top five. You know why I was able to do so much extra work. Having extra time and being able to do extra work doesn't mean that I'm not complete and utter shit when it comes to life!"

"Lance—" Shiro tried to say.

"No!" Lance shouted, "I don't want your fake support. I'm so fucking tired of people telling me that I'm better than I am! I'm not a good person and I don't desire to be. I just want to have people see _me_ and tell me the _truth_. I'm sick and tired of being lied to."

Lance turned around, not caring to look at Shiro any more. Shiro watched sullenly as Lance stormed out of the room, slamming the door open and letting it close with a soft thump when he was already halfway down the hallway.

Shiro sat down in a chair, silent. He buried his face in his hands and tried to hold his scrambled mind together. He didn't know what he could say or do. Lance needed space. So did Keith. But he couldn't just leave either of them to their very evident self-hatred.

The door behind him clicked open softly. Shiro raised his head to see Allura walking in. "Hey," she whispered.

"Allura, I don't know what to do. I think I just hurt Lance more than if I had left him alone."

Shiro watched as Allura bit her lip nervously. "I think you should try to work on Keith. He needs to have someone."

"What happened?" Shiro asked.

"He threw Lance's chair down then buried his head in his hands. He seems really distraught. He might be crying…"

"Allura," Shiro sighed, "I can't. I can't talk to him. He won't take anything from me. He will take whatever I say, no matter how true or false, and turn it against him."

Allura nodded solemnly. "What are you going to do?"

"I don't think I can talk to them, but maybe someone else can?" Shiro sighed again, "I don't know that I can ask them but Pidge can sometimes get Keith to open up and Hunk knows Lance well enough to calm him down. Do you think I could ask them both to take my burden?"

Allura hummed pensively, "I think that Hunk would be more than willing to help Lance. The only reason he isn't is because he was giving you space to try to help him. Pidge on the other hand, they can be a bit more temperamental."

Shiro nodded. "Let me ask Hunk first, then I can see about Pidge."

* * *

~ Lance

 _I'm worthless._

 _I'm a burden to everyone who meets me._

 _No one wants to help, I'm just forcing my problems onto them._

Lance clutched his head in outrage as he sat in the privacy of his car out in the parking lot. He didn't want to hurt anyone or disturb them since he was so clearly a burden.

He had been told that Keith could be aggressive and short-tempered, but he never expected him to figure out all of Lance's doubts and worries. At least not so quickly.

 _Well, not all of them._

It was some consolation that his barriers had blocked some of Keith's perception. Or at least… Keith had had the sensitivity to not reveal them. It was hard enough for him to get close to people. Sure, he would be able to talk to anyone conversationally, but it was all forced. Nothing was real. _He_ wasn't real. He hadn't been for years.

Lance started when he heard a soft tapping at his window. He turned his head to see Hunk's kind smile looking at him. A part of him wanted to tell Hunk to leave because he wasn't in the mood, but the other part of him really needed support from someone who would understand. Reluctantly, he clicked the unlock button on his car. Hunk scurried around the front of the car to get into the passenger's side. He opened the door and thumped down into the seat making the car rock a little.

Lance remained silent, his face turned away from Hunk.

"So," Hunk said quietly.

"So," Lance echoed with no intention of continuing his thought.

"Lance, I know you don't want to hear it, so I won't linger on the topic long," Hunk said placing a hand comfortingly on Lance's knee, "You _are_ valued and you _are_ important to the team."

Lance scoffed and rolled his eyes.

"I know you won't listen to me," Hunk continued, "So how about I tell you something instead. Hmm?" Lance caught him staring intently at Lance out of the corner of his eye which only made Lance turn his head away, wanting as much attention off of him as possible, an abnormal occurrence.

"This isn't my story to tell, but I can tell you this much," Hunk said slowly. "A couple of years ago, Keith joined this team. He got in at a rather young age because of Shiro's recommendation. Well, he was amazing. He could profile a criminal in a minute with almost no information to go on and be spot on. We never knew how he was so good at it." Hunk smiled at the old memories.

"Well, there was this one case that… went sour. Keith took some leave— heck, most of us did. But when he came back, he wasn't the same. After a week or two, he decided to quit and he hasn't been back to visit since. I don't even know how often he has seen Shiro since then.

"I don't think he was trying to hurt you, Lance. I think he is still mad at our job and he wanted to… protect you before you had to face the same horrors he did. This job is brutal."

Lance turned his head away. He was fully aware of the risks that came with this job but he wanted to make a change in the world. He wanted to do some good. He _had_ to.

"Hunk," Lance said after he took a shaky breath, "I see what you're saying, but that doesn't excuse how he reacted. I'm apart of this team now and I am ready to at least _try_. I need to make a difference in this world. If I don't, then what am I supposed to do with my life?"

Hunk nodded. "I just wanted you to know, I think everyone should get a chance to try what they want. Maybe your chance will come soon. For now, how about we go get some ice cream and then come back later?"

Lance nodded concedingly and turned the key in the car, turning it on. He watched Hunk pull on his seat belt, listened to him nag about Lance wearing one until he conceded, and then pulled away to go get ice cream.

* * *

~ Keith.

Thankfully, Keith had managed to pull himself together by the time Pidge slammed the door open, their glasses glinting mischievously with their overly peppy smile and a brown paper bag in their hands. Keith knew that his eyes were still red and his hair was a mess, but he had stopped caring.

"'Sup," Pidge said as they plopped the bag onto the table and proceeded to pick Lance's chair up and face it backwards. They sat down, facing Keith with their arms crossed over the top of the chair and their head resting on their arms.

Keith remained silent, not wanting to see anyone and just wishing that he could hide. He knew that they had all seen his tantrum through the mirror, but he liked to think that the room was isolated and that he didn't have to worry about anything.

"So," Pidge said softly. Their voice had lost some of its vigour as though they were forcing their voice to work. "I brought some food," they paused, "The Oreo asked me to talk to you."

Keith remembered when they had called Shiro an Oreo as a joke after his white streak of hair had come in, sandwiched by the black. It wasn't a nickname Keith would have expected to stick after he left, though.

Keith opened the bag and took out a burger and fries. He started eating while Pidge talked, not realizing how hungry he had become.

"But," Pidge said, "I told him I'm not gonna do shit for him because this is his mess to clean up. So I'm going to talk to you before I make him come in here to work things out. "

Keith looked up and met Pidge's eyes. They looked at him intently, trying to lighten the mood, but fighting against Keith's cloud of darkness was near impossible.

"Nice to know he cares so much," Keith scoffed.

"Keith, he does care, but he didn't want to hurt you. But, I told him that you and I wouldn't get any work done because we would just talk about shit. So, that's my job!" A weak grin spread across their face.

Keith nodded eating a handful of fries in one bite, "Fair enough. Okay, let's cheer me up before the Oreo comes in."

"Cool. So, how's your life?"

"Mmm," Keith pursed his lips, "Let's not go there."

Pidge nodded. "'Kay. I'll start then. The other week we were against this really twisted weirdo who gouged out people's eyes and then froze them. The disturbing thing was when we found all of the masses of eye-goop in a freezer along with a victim. We saved a victim- thankfully with her eyes still in her head— and got the guy pretty quickly after that. The funny thing happened when the group came back, because, of course, I wasn't there; I was watching the computer cameras, though. So when they came back, I had put some of those gummy eyeball candies into some strawberry jello and I put it in the freezer. Coran— the guy with the orange mustache— found it first and he squealed like a freshly caught piglet! It was so funny. But… I was banned from the fridge as a result. They put a key code password on it. Not that that stops me. I just don't tell the others because then I can prank them later." Pidge froze, paled, and then turned towards the one-way mirror that showed Keith and Pidge staring at themselves. "Fuck," they whispered, "I was saving that one for something really good." Pidge raised their voice as they faced the mirror again, "Shiro, I'm not going to do anything, I swear." Pidge dropped their voice again and raised a mischievous eyebrow at Keith, "at least," they whispered, "not yet."

Keith chuckled, finally able to relax his shoulders slightly. "How's Matt doing?" he asked. He hadn't been in touch since he left the BAU. He hoped that Matt was doing better than he was. As in, _not being accused of murder_.

"Oh, my brother's fine. He got a job working as a simple detective tech. I think he might have stayed if I had given my job back to him but I was like 'oh, hell no. I'm not giving up this job until it kills me or someone out hacks me.' Still no one has, by the way." Pidge crossed their arms across their chest looking smug. "Anyway, it's doing wonders for his stress. He is a lot more calm usually. Though, he was working really late last night and only left a voicemail for me saying that he had to stay out late. Bastard. I had microwaved food and everything for him! Before I saw the message, that is. So, I just ate his meal too. I couldn't let it go to waste— it was perfectly good food."

"Hey," Keith said, holding his hands up in surrender, "You're talking to the guy who has eaten protein bars as a food group and meal of breakfast for the past three years. I don't judge food. Food is food." He took another large bite of the hamburger.

"Unless it's Hunk's food because his food is AWESOME!" Pidge raved.

"Oh, I miss Hunk's cooking!" Keith said reminiscing.

"He just learned a new cheesecake recipe which is _so_ good!" Pidge closed their eyes and hummed appreciatively. "It has this drizzled strawberry sauce with chocolate bits inside of the cake and it is amazing."

"That does sound good," Keith said. He hadn't eaten something of good food quality in a few weeks. Mostly out of sheer laziness and an inability to cook food, he had only eaten canned goods or fast food.

The conversation dropped off. Keith knew he should say something but every thought he had lead to an awkward conversation. He looked at Pidge to find them staring out the window to their right. There wasn't much to see of the outdoors, mostly just trees with branches obscuring any potential view of the city. The wind rustled the branches touching the window creating an ominous knocking sound.

He had finished eating. Keith sighed, deciding to ask the question bouncing though his anxiety-ridden mind. "Pidge," he said in a voice barely above a whisper. They didn't turn towards him; they only let out a breath of acknowledgement. "How… how is Shiro?"

Pidge nodded as though they understood the weight of his question. "He's okay. The white patch never went away but… it hasn't spread either." Pidge paused for a moment, their eyes calculating. "He's worried about you. He wants you to be well-protected and safe."

Keith looked away from Pidge, unable to bear their eyes boring into him.

"His greatest concern was, and still is, that you will break and no longer care to… y'know."

Keith swallowed the thick spit that had welled up in the back of his throat.

"Look," Pidge said, all of their usual joking tone was long gone. "We all just want to make sure you are okay. After… Everything was really hard. Somehow we all made it through and Shiro wants to keep it like that. He's our dad— well, the equivalent of. We want to make you feel happy and welcome. We don't want you to suffer any more."

"Then why am I chained up and suspected of murder?"

" _Keith_ ," Pidge said sharply.

"What?" Keith snapped back

"You know what the protocol is. We couldn't have favoritism deny the abundance of evidence we found."

"What evidence?!" Keith cried in exasperating.

"I… I'm not supposed to tell you." Pidge said desperately, "You know how the protocol works."

"Yeah," Keith said, barely able to contain his flaring temper, "I know it is a fucked up system and I'm sick of it."

If Keith could, he would have gone and stormed out of the room, no matter how childish it would be.

Pidge rubbed their eyes underneath their glasses with their forefinger and thumb. "Keith," they said tiredly, "I know you want out. I know you want answers. So do we. My guess is, another victim is going to be killed while we are tangled up here trying to interrogate you about something you know nothing about. Maybe then you will be free; who knows? I'm going to try my hardest to get you out. So will Hunk and Shiro. Even Lance and Allura and Coran want you to go free because they know how much it would hurt the rest of us to convict you. I'm sorry, but we're trying."

Keith sighed, trying to vent some of his anger. The rational part of his brain saw Pidge's point of view and agreed with it. But, at the same time, the other part of him was furious. He wanted to know _why_ he was suspected. Lance said he was at the crime scenes. Keith remembered how he had seen those deaths but he had tried to run away. He wanted nothing more to do with them.

"Yeah," he whispered after a moment. He wound his anger into a ball to be stored at the back of his mind for later. "Yeah, I know. I just… I want answers. I see how you don't believe I could have done these murders and I thank you for that. I saw how Lance was even uncertain about me. I see that you and Matt aren't doing that well which is why you didn't check your phone until after you made dinner. And his safety and overworking has probably been an afterthought."

Keith watched as Pidge withered under his words. Immediately, he backed off. He remember that promise he had made to Shiro those few years ago…

"Sorry," Keith said miserably.

"Don't be," Pidge said with a wave of their hand. Their voice was back to their usual peppy mischievous tone. "I remembered you being good at profiling but _damn_ , Keith."

"Hey, just because I left doesn't mean I'm rusty."

"Yeah," Pidge said quietly.

Suddenly, there was a knock at the door. Keith turned his head towards it, but of course he didn't know who was behind the door.

"Whelp," Pidge said standing up dramatically and pushing the chair away from in front of them as they did, "That'd be my cue to leave. Adios." They grabbed the now empty bag of food and took it to throw away.

"And remember," they said, stopping as they reached the door. "I will be watching. Always," they said in a gravelly demonic voice.

Keith had a moment of confusion before he remembered the one-way mirror. "Oh, ha ha," he said sarcastically.

Pidge bowed and walked out of the door, leaving the room once again in silence as the door clicked closed.

Keith stared out the window as he waited, the seconds bearing down on him. After a while, the door opened slowly, quietly.

Keith watched stone faced as Shiro stepped in. His head was downcast, as though he didn't dare meet Keith's eyes. Slowly, Shiro walked towards Keith. He turned around Pidge's chair and sat down. Keith remained quiet, wanting Shiro to start the conversation first.

As he waited, he noticed that Shiro's hair was shorter than it had been the last time he had seen him, though he had still grown out the white bangs so they looked like a tail of fluff over his forehead. His shoulders were slumped but he still looked strong and sturdy.

"Keith," Shiro breathed, finally looking up to meet Keith's eyes. His eyes were a dark, misty grey that bore into Keith. Keith wanted to shrink away but he forced himself to hold strong. "Keith," Shiro repeated, "I'm sorry."

* * *

Lance~

Lance took his ice cream from Hunk and licked it as he closed the door to his car.

"You're coming back?" Hunk said.

"You sound surprised," Lance said, faking being offended. "There is drama happening here. Of course I'm back." Hunk shrugged, heading out across the parking lot.

Truthfully, Lance hadn't been sure he was coming back and he still wasn't sure he wanted to be back. But, he wanted to be appreciated by the team. He had to show them that he could be of use… or at least that he was willing to be tough.

Lance spun his keyes around one finger and licked his ice cream with the other hand as he walked into the building behind Hunk.

Lance walked over to the interrogation room. Pidge sat outside of it by themself. Lance leaned against the wall across from the one-way mirror into the interrogation room. "'Sup," Lance said looking through the glass at Keith and Shiro. Both of them looked awkward and uncomfortable they were talking so quietly it was hard to hear them through the speaker set on the table Pidge was currently sitting on.

They looked back over to Lance and Hunk walking in. "Oh, what?!" they cried indignantly, "You didn't bring me any ice cream?" Pidge clutched a hand over their heart and bent over as though in pain. Then, they sat up and looked at Lance in confusion. "Lance," they said suspiciously, "What the fuck is your ice cream?"

Lance looked down at his cone of ice cream. He had gotten the special at Baskin Robbins which happened to be something about rainbow? He hadn't paid that much attention. It was a deep purple color with bright blues and greens swirled through it. It tasted vaguely fruity, vaguely chocolatey, vaguely butterscotch-y, and vaguely like the inside of a box sitting in the attic for a few years. "I'm not entirely sure. I usually just get the flavor of the month and the chocolate peanut butter so…" Lance licked it.

"I don't think I will ever understand you," Pidge whispered turning back to the speaker.

Lance watched Shiro and Keith talking quietly. It was weird to Lance, almost surreal, to see Keith so calm and open. Sure, he hadn't known him that long, but Lance had the impression that his interactions with Keith were about normal. With Shiro, however, he was talking more easily. Lance noticed the way his eyebrows were tilted over his eyes in… concern? Sympathy? Regret? Lance couldn't tell. His eyes were wide as they stared at Shiro, the same misty grey that Shiro had. With his shoulders slumped, he seemed almost… vulnerable. Lance wanted to protect him even though he had just been hurt by him. He, somehow, couldn't reconcile the angry hot-headed yet funny and a little charming person with this awkward and empathetic version.

A drop of melted ice cream landed on his hand, jarring Lance enough to realize that he was staring. He licked the drop off of the back of his hand and moved closer to Pidge so he could hear the conversation over the speakers. "What have they been talking about?" he asked quietly. Hunk leaned over his shoulder to see into the room, his weight on Lance's back was like a comforting pillow.

"A little bit about the investigation and a little bit about what happened earlier. You haven't missed much. Shiro was so quiet for a while that they have only been talking for about ten minutes." Pidge grew quiet and moved over so that Lance and Hunk could hear the speaker better.

"Shiro, I know you want to help me and I haven't been very helpful, but trust me, I haven't been killing people," Keith's voice crackled through the speaker. His voice sounded heavy, like it carried a lot of unspoken words.

"I _do_ trust you Keith," Shiro said calmly and slowly, though there was still an edge to his voice. "But we need to make sure that you aren't in danger. I mean, you used to always carry a knife with you."

"Yes," Keith humphed, "I leave it at home or in my car now though. My boss almost got me fired when he found me carrying it. You guys can go search my car and house and find it if you want, though."

Shiro frowned and looked away from Keith. "Yeah," he whispered.

"Wait," Lance said, his voice hushed for no reason he could figure, "Shiro isn't telling Keith something. What is it?"

Pidge glanced sideways at him, "Allura and Coran are searching his apartment right now. They already found the knife in his car, though."

"Oh," Hunk said, removing himself from Lance's back to sit cross legged on the ground, "That makes sense. Shiro's probing him."

"Keith, I need you to talk to me," Shiro pleaded, his eyes still averted, "If you don't, we can never get you out of here."

"How about you ask me some questions instead of being a coward and hoping I'll magically confess to crimes I _didn't commit_."

"I know you didn't commit those murders!" Shiro said desperately. Lance saw fear in his eyes, a strange kind of fear that was more desperation and concern than traditional fear.

"Fine," Keith said with a sigh, "If you won't ask me questions, I'll ask you some. Why did you send Lance in instead of talking to me yourself?"

Lance leaned forward, wondering what Shiro would say. He saw his eyes widen and then shrink into a glare. Tireadly, Shiro ran a hand through his hair. "You already know the answer, don't you Keith?"

Keith's voice surprised Lance when he spoke. It was soft and kind and so unlike the angry boy he had heard, personally earlier. "You… you didn't want to hurt me by being the one to accuse me. And… neither did Pidge or Hunk. You wanted someone I might get along with, not someone I would close up to."

Shiro nodded solemnly.

"Shiro, I see your view, but try to see mine. I woke up today, perfectly ready to go to work, only to get a strange text and call from you, followed by being abducted by the police and imprisoned in the place I never wanted to return to. I don't know what is happening—"

"They found the mark," Shiro interrupted, his eyes closed.

Keith was stunned into silence. " _The_ mark?" he whispered.

Shiro nodded.

"What mark?" Lance whispered to Pidge, his voice barely more than the air passing through his lips.

Pidge hesitated, "The one on his knife and written in blood at the crime scene."

Lance stiffened. This was new information. Before, he had just been reading some questions the others had made for him. He hadn't bothered to really question the profile himself because he had assumed Keith would tell him like the other criminals told Hunk or Pidge or Shiro, so he didn't know all that much about the case.

He wanted to ask Pidge how the symbols related, but Keith had started talking again, drawing Lance's attention back to the pair.

"Shiro, I… I don't know if you will believe me, but… but I _swear_ I don't have ties with them anymore." Lance noted the steely glimmer in Keith's eyes as he spoke.

"Keith," Shiro rubbed the back of his head, "If you can tell us where they are, what they are doing, and how we can stop them, then you will be released."

"I would tell you if I could but, like I said, I don't have any ties to them anymore." Lance could hear the bite of anger edging in Keith's voice. "Could you give me the file of the case?"

Shiro pursed his lips, "I need to talk to everyone and, if they agree, then I will give you the file. It wouldn't be tonight. Maybe tomorrow but I have to give them a chance for processing and being able to make a logical decision."

Keith nodded, accepting the idea. "I can stay at the BAU for a night. I mean, I wouldn't choose to but I know I'm not going to get my way so I might as well just concede and take what I can get."

Both of them were quiet. Lance wondered if Shiro was going to leave, but he stayed.

Keith was the first to speak, his voice was barely a whisper so Lance, Pidge, and Hunk all leaned forward towards the speaker. "Are you sure it's them? They have a lot of enemies… someone could be framing them."

"We know," Shiro said. "This is really extreme for their normal, but we at least have to follow the leads we get. That's why you're here."

Lance wondered who the "they" that Shiro and Keith kept talking about were. _Could "they" be a single friend of Keith's? Maybe… but the likelihood that Keith has another agender friend like Pidge is fairly slim. So "they" most likely refers to a group. Maybe a group of school friends?_

Lance looked Keith up and down. His raven black hair was choppy and long in the back. He eyes looked hardened and hurt, like he was someone you didn't want to mess with, but the calm turn of his eyebrows showed his sympathy. Even though his arms were crossed over his chest, he seemed relaxed. Lance didn't think he was the kind of person to join some gang. He looked like he might be, but that seemed almost like a front. Like Keith had more depth than he wanted people to know he had.

"Keith," Shiro whispered, "I know you didn't want to be dragged back here."

Keith scoffed, looking away towards the wall.

"But, do you think you would be willing to cooperate with us? Even after everything…" Shiro paused then continued, "Maybe this time try to get along with our team, even the new guys. Allura is a little strict but she can be very fun and loving and Coran is super fun; he's like the crazy uncle in our family. And Lance… Lance is one of our best members. He is funny and caring, even if he doesn't show it. He is not a 'replacement' for you, he is only Lance."

Lance wondered if that was true. He told himself that Shiro was just saying that to try to improve Keith's view of him.

Keith rolled his eyes, "Yeah, I know."

"Plus," Shiro said with the hint of a smirk on his lips, "Who knows? Maybe he will even become a better profiler than you."

Keith shook his head, stuttering for words. "Not possible," he said resolutely.

"You have been out of practice for a while…" Shiro said with a girn.

Pidge picked up the speaker and pressed a button so that Keith and Shiro would be able to hear what Pidge said. "Dudes, we need to put them to a profiling test!"

Keith looked uncertain.

"Oh, yes!" Lance cried taking the speaker from Pidge. "You are _so_ on, Mullet. I will out-profile you anyday."

Keith raised an eyebrow, a smirk spreading across his face. "Alright, I'm up to having a little competition."

"Yes!" Pidge cried looking at Hunk. "We can have the profiling Olympics!"

"The Prolympics!" Hunk cried. "Wait, no. That sounds wrong. ...The profil-athlon?"

Pidge turned off the speakers and returned it to the table. Shiro said a goodbye to Keith and then stood and headed out of the room. Once the door was closed, everyone was silent.

A part of Lance wanted to lighten the mood as he normally would, but the other part of him didn't think it was the right time. He looked at his watch— a silver faced analogue watch with a dark brown leather band. It was almost five p.m. _Where did the time go?_ Lance wondered.

"Guys," he said, "Are we just going to leave Keith in there… or what? Doesn't he get a place to sleep?"

"I don't want to put him in the cell where the criminals go. Because right now, he is more of a witness than a criminal," Shiro sighed quietly.

The group heard a quiet opening and shutting of the door and the distant chatter of Allura and Coran. "Let's have a group meeting," Hunk suggested.

Pidge hopped off of the desk and started walking down the hallway without waiting for the others. They followed suit.

Lance wondered how Keith must be feeling. It didn't take a genius profiler to hear the uncertainty in Shiro's voice when he had been talking to him.

Lance knew that if it were him who was suspected, then he wouldn't be very welcoming, but he would feel extremely lonely.

He glanced through the one-way mirror to look at Keith. He had his head buried in his arms on the table. Lance felt so bad for him. He looked so… dejected and lonely.

Lance forced his eyes away and headed after the group, but when he got to the end of the hallway, he couldn't help but glance back through the glass.

* * *

~Shiro

"Look," Allura said as she paced in front of the room, "I know we all want Keith to be comfortable, but we, cannot, in good conscience, let him stay at one of our houses. If there is even a slight chance he killed someone, we have to keep that in our minds."

Everyone nodded. "Well," Hunk said, "could we at least bring him a blanket or something? Maybe a pillow?"

"I see no harm in that," Coran said, stepping up like a military general. "One always should get a good night's sleep."

"I do _not,_ want to put him in that cell where we hold criminals, though," Shiro said firmly. If he could, he would have taken Keith back to his apartment. Even if he did die, therefore confirming Keith to be the killer, Shiro wouldn't A: know it for long or at all before he died, and B: have to keep living this heckhole of a life.

"I know," Hunk said, "None of us do."

"Why don't we just unchain him from that chair and throw a couple of pillows in the room?" Pidge suggested. "I mean, Keith already sleeps just about anywhere."

"I think that's probably the best we can do without showing too much favoritism," Shiro said. He looked at the others hoping for their approval. They all nodded.

"We need pillows and blankets," Allura commented. .

"I can get the blankets," Shiro said.

"I'll get the pillows," Hunk supplied, already standing, "Lance's bed is littered with them."

"Hey!" Lance protested, "I need those for my beauty sleep!"

Shiro watched Lance take off after Hunk who was speed-walking to the door.

Shiro stood up. "Well, I better run home and grab those blankets."

"I'll come with you," Allura said sweetly.

Shiro frowned nervously "Okay," he said softly.

Pidge raised an eyebrow and smiled maliciously, but Shiro tried to just ignore them. "OREO," they called out once Shiro and Allura were halfway down the hallway. Shiro turned around, annoyance on his face. He didn't necessarily dislike the nickname but he didn't love it. "First of all, smile a little, and second: I'm heading out. I'm tired and I want some microwave chow mein so, seeya."

Shiro, Allura, and Coran all said their own goodbyes. Pidge hopped off of the table and barreled out the door.

Allura smiled at Shiro and they headed out towards Shiro's black car and got in.

* * *

Lance~

"Don't take _all_ of my pillows!" Lance cried indignantly. "Then _I_ won't be able to sleep."

"Oh, hush," Hunk said as he shoved another pillow into the duffel bag already full to bursting with Lance's pillows. "You have plenty."

"But what if he is the killer!" Lance said. "Then I'll have to get rid of all of my pillows and buy new ones."

Hunk paused his ruining of Lance's perfectly made bed to turn back and glare at him. "Keith did _not_ kill anyone."

Lance huffed. "We haven't proven that," he muttered.

"Look," Hunk said, all softness gone from his voice. "Keith is my friend. Same as you. Now, if you were in his place, would you want me saying that you killed those people?"

"Yes," Lance cried. "No," he amended quickly. Lance clutched his head, "I don't know. I'd want to catch the guy… but I'd want to be helping as well."

"What do you think Keith wants right now?"

"To be free. To understand," Lance whispered. He knew Hunk was right, it just… it just felt so weird to give someone he barely knew his pillows. Especially since, without any other leads, they were supposed to assume Keith was the murderer.

Hunk nodded, seeing the understanding on Lance's face. "Okay, then be quiet and let Keith get a good night sleep. Or as good as he can while chained up in a place for killers."

"Won't he not be able to sleep though?" Lance asked as Hunk fought to shove in one more pillow, having already reduced Lance's supply to three pillows, while also trying to zip the bag closed. "I thought only the guilty could sleep."

Hunk hummed pensively, "You'd be surprised where Keith can sleep."

Hunk picked up the bag with little effort and placed it on his shoulder. "We can head out now."

Lance swung himself off of the couch and bounded out of the room. "Finally," he said with an exasperated smile. "I didn't think you would ever be done."

"I wish Keith could come stay with us," Hunk said with a smile. "I remember when we would have these team sleepovers and they were always so much fun. Keith never really got into it but if you stayed up late enough, and I mean _late_ , then he would start acting like he knew everything and would spout off random facts. A couple of times, we would try to coerce him into truth or dare, but he was pretty stubborn."

Lance watched with curiosity as Hunk's loving smile fell away into a deep frown. "It's funny," Hunk said quietly, "I never really noticed how much our group has changed. I wouldn't have thought it… it changed so much in such a short time without Keith or Matt."

Lance wanted to ask questions. He had only ever heard about this "Amazing Keith" from references but he didn't know _why_ Keith was so loved, so accepted. Not that Lance was jealous or anything.

He hated how he was always compared to Keith. He could never be as good as Keith. He could never profile as quickly, or act as decisively.

The only thing that seemed to make Lance special was his humor, but he couldn't joke all of the time.

 _Stop it._ He told himself. _You need to let go of being compared. Just… try. That's all you have to do. Try._ Lance pinched his wrist sharply. _…Shit,_ he thought as he looked down at the raw pink of his skin.

Lance shook his head, distracting himself with opening the door for Hunk. He proceeded to pull out his keys and wander towards his car. He stared at the pointed glinting edges of the key, the shining silver lines along each of the teeth, the shadowed black of the head with the unlock and lock buttons…

"You okay?"

Hunk's voice jarred Lance out of his daze.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Lance fumbled to fit the key into the lock of the car. Hunk threw the bag in the back and got into the passenger's seat. "You sure? You kind of just zoned out for a bit there."

"Yes," Lance said decisively. "I'm fine. Let's head back to give Mullet my pillows."

* * *

Keith~

Keith sat quietly in his chair. He didn't think anyone was watching him anymore. The only sound he could hear was the rustling of the leaves against the one window he had. The light above him glared down as the sun set, changing the soft shadows of the trees into menacing tendrils of darkness.

He was used to being alone, but he always had things to distract himself. He always had his phone to check his messages or look up random shit.

Now, the only thing Keith had to occupy himself was his traitorous mind that wouldn't stop replaying the events of the day in his head along with his memories of… _that_ day. He saw the text message Shiro sent followed by the hearing the work phone ring. He remembered answering Shiro, but his brother's voice was overlapped with Pidge's panicked one. As the door to the BAU opened this morning, Keith saw the door that opened in the killer's house only to reveal the ropes and chains and blood.

Keith shuddered and clutched his head. The stretching shadows, horribly reminded him of the slowly oozing blood that came from everywhere. The way Pidge had called out his name excitedly made the weak moaning of Hunk's voice even louder.

 _If only I had been a little faster._

Keith remembered the way Matt had opened the door first. The way he had fallen to his knees. Keith had pushed past him as Matt whimpered, "Shiro…"

Keith remembered the way their blood was slick and warm on his hands.

Keith looked down at his hands in horror. He saw that deep crimson stricken with shadows.

 _No!_ Keith shook his head and the shadows disappeared.

He closed his eyes, but that only made the scenes more vivid. Staring at the ceiling helped. He was able to calm his mind a bit. Enough to breathe easier.

"Please Shiro," Keith whispered, "Get me out of here."

* * *

~Shiro

Shiro sat next to Allura in the car. They had driven in near silence the whole way. Shiro was so worried about Keith and mad about his being imprisoned that he hadn't been willing to say much.

"I'm excited to see your apartment," Allura said.

 _Right._ Shiro thought with dismay. _This is the first time Allura is coming over._ He hadn't had any of the team come over in a long while. Not since Keith and Matt had left.

Shiro missed them. The group was still like a family but it was different. Fractured. Instead of getting together to escape, they went home and avoided each other to forget as much of their jobs as they could. Of course, Lance and Hunk were roommates and Pidge still lived with Matt, but they didn't just get together to… hang out. Shiro didn't know how Matt was doing. He hoped that Matt was doing better.

And… he wasn't sure but he thought that Allura might have a crush on him.

But he hoped he was wrong.

Shiro pulled the car to a slow park. "I promise you, it is nothing special," Shiro said quietly, not looking at Allura.

"I'm sure it will be fine."

Shiro got out of his car and started walking towards the apartment building. It was a tall, looming structure built from brick and wood in red and navy tones. He looked up at the five flights of concrete stairs ahead of them. "Are you sure you want to come up? It is a long climb."

"Yep," Allura said, "I'm ready."

Shiro nodded and began to climb up the steps, Allura's footsteps thumping behind his own.

Out of breath, Shiro fumbled with his keys, missing the lock several times. He opened the door, turned on the light, and held it open for Allura to walk through.

Suddenly, he was very self-conscious of the dirty dishes in his sink, the shoes put in a pile by his door, the books that lay in a collapsed pile by his bed. His ears heated up as Allura looked around.

"I'm sorry for the mess," Shiro said softly.

"It's so wonderful," She whispered as she walked towards the quaint bookshelf Shiro had overflowing with books. She ran her fingers lightly over the ones at her eye level.

She turned back to him, smiling, "I wish I had enough time to read," she said.

"I tend to read to fall asleep," Shiro said.

Allura looked to the shelf of journals on a shelf on his wall that were held together with marble bookends shaped like books. "Do you write?" she asked.

Shiro shook his head, "No, but I keep track of the cases we solve. Some are for cases where we are able to save the victim. Some… are ones where we… we don't."

Allura nodded. She turned towards the framed photographs of scenery along his walls. "Any meaning to these?"

"Those are the locations for the first mission I had with each of our team members."

Allura scanned the pictures and pointed to the one that was third to last. It was a picture of a mountain overlooking lush green valleys covered in flowers and trees. "This is my first mission, isn't it?" she asked.

"Yeah, Colorado," Shiro sighed remembering the killer they had caught. It had been one of their few female unsubs which Shiro remembered Pidge and Hunk joking about unceasingly, because of Allura joining.

"So you just get postcards of the cities with each of our first missions?"

"Not postcards," Shiro said. "I usually find famous photos. I wanted a way to remember my first mission," Shiro nodded to the first picture which showed the rocky cliffside with the crashing waves of the sea below, "In a way that wasn't depressing or horrific. I wanted to remember the beauty in the world."

"Wow, Shiro," Allura whispered. "That is really moving and poetic." There was no mockery in her voice as Shiro would have expected from Pidge or Keith. Instead, Allura sounded like she genuinely liked the idea.

Her fingers gently graced the second picture, a sunset over a mesa in the desert.

"Matt was the one who suggested it, actually," Shiro said warmly. "We started at the same time but I picked the first picture and he picked the second."

Allura nodded, "I would like to meet him sometime. He sounds like a wonderful friend."

"He is," Shiro smiled with pride. "I didn't want tons of pictures cluttering my walls so I only did it for the immediate team when they were first assigned. That next one," —a picture of a rolling grassy meadow covered in soft mist— "was for Hunk when he joined."

Allura pointed to the next one which was a picture of skyscrapers at night with lots of lights and would-be flashing signal towers. "Let me guess, this one is Pidge?"

"Yep. I made them choose something at least somewhat peaceful."

Allura snorted as she looked at the next picture. It was a picture of a grey-scaled willow tree with it's leafy tendrils snaking towards a dark lake that reflected a waning gibbous moon. "Keith?"

"Of course. He would be the only one to pick a picture without color or life."

"Yet, it is still so peaceful," Allura's voice dropped away like she had lost her train of thought. She stared at the picture. Then, quietly, she whispered, "We're going to find who is really committing these crimes. I promise, Shiro."

"Thank you," Shiro said stepping closer to the pictures. It meant a lot to him that everyone seemed to want Keith to be innocent. If he wasn't, he didn't know how he would be able to… to go on. He would have to leave someone else in charge… but Keith was the person he would have picked to lead.

 _No,_ Shiro chastised himself, _No need to think like that because Keith is innocent._

Still, his mind couldn't help but wonder what would happen to the group if he were to….

Allura glanced at Shiro and quickly pointed to the picture just after her own. It showed a wheat field overlooking a small village-like city with the sun still rising on the horizon, casting everything in a golden glow, "Coran," she said.

"Yeah," Shiro replied trying to shake his thoughts away.

Allura looked at the last one. It was a picture of the ocean waves crashing onto a rocky shore while the endless expanse of stars above shone and sparkled. "I remember this. Up near Seattle, Washington."

"I love how the longer you look at this picture, the more colors and stars you see," Shiro said, smiling warmly.

"It is really stunning," Allura said back, leaning towards Shiro slightly. Shiro took an uncomfortable step away from her, turning his head away.

"Um," he said awkwardly, not wanting to be rude, "I should get those blankets for Keith and then we should head back…"

"Right," Allura muttered, her head tilted down, "Of course."

Shiro rushed off and grabbed a couple of fleece blankets, a knitted one, and a plain cloth sheet, and balled them together, not bothering to fold them nicely.

"Okay," he said as he closed the bedroom door behind him, "I'm ready. Let's head out."

As they were walking out the door, Shiro felt his phone vibrate. He handed Allura the blankets, locked the door and then pulled out his phone. Confusion wrinkled his face. "Um, Pidge just texted me."

"What did they say?" Allura asked, her face peeking over the pile of blankets.

"They said that are back at the BAU and that we need to get there ASAP. Something happened, I guess." Shiro locked his phone and took half the blankets from the Allura. They began their descent down the many flights of stairs.

"Hmm," Allura hummed pensively. "I hope they are alright."

Shiro wanted to say something to reassure her but a million thoughts about what could have gone wrong were flashing though his mind. He worried that something was wrong with their dad. Or maybe even Matt. Shiro wished that he could protect Matt… and Pidge and Sam.

All he could manage to say as he placed the blankets in the back of his car was, "Me too. Me too."

* * *

~Lance

By the time Lance and Hunk had climbed out of the car, Lance had been more or less back to his normal self. Despite it being light, he had made Hunk lug the duffle bag of pillows inside.

"There you are!" Pidge cried furiously as they entered.

"Pidge?" Hunk asked, "I thought you had left."

"Didn't you get my texts?!" they cried, ignoring Hunk's question.

Lance pulled out his phone and noticed that Pidge had texted him numerous times, frantically asking them to get back quickly. "Sorry," Lance said, "Hunk here was too busy pillaging my pillows from my bed."

Pidge ignored Lance and peeked out the door behind him. "Are Shiro and Allura back yet?"

"We just got here," Lance said.

"That was rhetorical," Pidge said, monotonously, their eyes still scanning the cars in the parking lot.

"So, what's going on?" Hunk asked, setting the bag down.

"I have important news that is TIME sensitive," Pidge fumed, "And I've been waiting for you guys for a fucking hour!"

"I doubt that," Lance said, glancing at his watch. "We were gone for about 45 minutes so with your drive time and back, it couldn't have been more than 15 minutes."

"Well, fuck you!" Pidge cried, turning away from the door furiously. "I'm panicking and I need Shiro here, _now_."

As if on cue, Lance saw Shiro's car pull into an empty parking space.

"It's about time!" Pidge huffed.

Shiro and Allura got out of the car and each grabbed a pile of blankets.

 _Great,_ Lance thought, _Keith gets all of our bedding so he can cover the room with it like a king._

As soon as Shiro opened the door, Pidge grabbed his arm and pulled him with them, "Conference room. Now. All of you. Coran's already there."

Shiro dropped his blankets in surprise. Allura set hers neatly next to Hunk's duffel bag.

Lance glanced at the others. He shrugged and followed after the pissed off Pidge who was already halfway down the hallway with Shiro.

When he entered the conference room, he found it eerily quiet. Pidge was staring at him with such an intensity that he worried his brain was going to disintegrate.

Immediately upon Allura, the last person, entering the room, Pidge started talking.

"Matt was kidnapped."

The room went from silent to a cacophonous uproar in a matter of seconds.

"What?!" Hunk cried worriedly.

"How do you know?" Allura said nervously.

"Your brother…" Coran said, his voice solemn.

"Who took him?" Shiro inquired. His voice held a steely protectiveness. Lance remembered that he and Matt had been good friends before Matt had left.

Lance could barely keep up with all of the questions flying out of people's mouths. Pidge sat silent, waiting for the group's initial uproar to die down.

"I got a text from him last night saying he was working late. That was the last I heard from him," Pidge started.

"But… but Matt hates working late…" Shiro muttered.

"I know," Pidge seethed. "I didn't see him this morning either. His bed wasn't messed up or anything so it doesn't look like he has been home since Tuesday morning."

"How… how do you know he was… kidnapped and not… you know…" Hunk whispered quietly.

"Because of this," Pidge pulled out their phone and opened it to a picture of a simple grey-handled dagger sticking a yellowing sheet of paper to the wall. The words **FIND HIM** were bolded underneath the familiar symbol that was left at every crime recently. The symbol and words were crimson and almost runny at the ends, as though trying to emphasize that it was written in blood.

"I didn't want to move it," Pidge was saying as everyone looked at the picture on their phone, "So I took a picture."

Everyone was caught in a subdued silence.

"Pidge," Allura said softly, "We'll get him back."

Pidge snorted, "Just cut the bullshit, everyone. I don't want false reassurance. I know the statistics as well as you."

Shiro looked Pidge dead in the eye, "Matt is my... friend. I will do anything to rescue him. And I mean _anything._ "

The corner of Pidge's mouth perked up in a small smile. "Thanks," they whispered.

Lance had been quiet the whole time. One idea, one question kept surfacing in his mind. Quietly he asked: "Has no one made the connection yet? We have only a few possibilities…"

Everyone looked grimly at him, waiting for him to continue. "Either, we got the wrong guy and Keith is innocent, or… it was a group effort and we're playing a game of hostages."

"Couldn't someone be framing Keith that way?" Hunk asked.

"No," Lance said, "This takes the heat _off_ of Keith. If they were framing him, they would want as much evidence as could be pointed at them."

"Should we tell him?" Coran asked. "Keith, I mean."

"He might be able to help on the case…" Hunk said.

"But what if this is about him?" Allura asked. "We can't bring our hostage with us in case he is captured by them."

"He could bring Matt home ten times faster than the rest of us!" Pidge shouted.

"Keith was Matt's friend too. I don't think that he would want him hurt, even at the cost of his own life," Shiro said resolutely. "I think he would be beneficial to the team, but I say we put it to a vote on whether we tell him and give him the _option_ to join our team. With restrictions and limitations set in place, of course."

Everyone nodded.

"Those for?" Shiro asked his voice sounding loud in the empty room.

Lance didn't know… He had heard how good Keith was at solving cases and profiling criminals, but… but could he be trusted? Lance didn't know.

Hunk, Pidge, and Shiro raised their hands immediately.

Allura sighed, "I trust you Chief and I trust that you trust your brother so…" she raised her hand.

"I'll follow you, Allura," Coran said, raising his hand.

"Lance?" Shiro asked. "This isn't a majority. This must be unanimous."

Lance nodded. He smiled lopsidedly, "I suppose I don't know any better so, sure," he raised his hand. "This will at least be interesting."

Shiro and Pidge's faces were both that of relief. "I'll tell him," Shiro said.

"Bring the pillows and blankets!" Hunk called as Shiro stood to leave.

"And tell him," Pidge yelled, "That he better do a damn good job finding my brother!"

* * *

...

~Keith

Keith had resolutely laid his head on the table in a way to try to sleep.

He wasn't able to though.

When the door slammed open, Keith jolted himself hard, knocking his head on the back of the chair.

"Jeez," he muttered, his head throbbing. He looked up, his eyes blurry. He could make out the outline of Shiro, cloth overflowing in his arms and a bag hanging from his shoulder.

"What the hell Shiro?" Keith cried. "I thought you had left!"

"Well," Shiro said quietly, his voice subdued, "I had to get some bedding for you."

Keith's vision cleared. He saw a plethora of blankets and an oversized duffel bag in front of him. Keith opened the duffel bag causing dozens of pillows to seemingly explode from the top. "Gah!" Keith cried. "How many pillows are in here?"

"Um, a lot," Shiro said. "But, that's not important."

Shiro's tone— grave and nervous— caused Keith to look up. He met Shiro's eyes. "What is it?" he asked, all amusement gone from his tone.

"Keith, would you… would you help us on a case?"

Keith knew he looked confused. _Why are you asking if you suspect me?_ Sure, he had wanted to see the file, but he didn't think he would be asked to join. Nor did he think the idea would be so tempting.

"The serial killer case I'm suspected for?" he asked.

"No… well, maybe," Shiro said slowly. "A kidnapping."

"Why do you need me?" Keith asked, leaning back in his chair.

"We don't necessarily _need_ you," Shiro was twisting his hands together— a nervous habit he had picked up a few years ago. "But we would really appreciate your assistance."

"Why?" Keith asked, still trying to figure out what was happening.

"Because…" Shiro paused as if calculating his words carefully, "We know who was kidnapped."

Keith widened his eyes slightly in surprize. _How long had they had this case? Were they stuck? Did they have no further leads? Or did they get a new clue?_

"Who?" Keith asked cautiously.

Shiro looked downwards, as though he couldn't bare to meet Keith's eyes. "Matt… Matthew Holt was the person kidnapped."

* * *

Note: phew! First chapter finished ^-^'

What did you think? I have a plot in mind for the next part but it isn't set in stone so I'm open to ideas and suggestions!

Also, commenting on what you liked (or didn't like) helps me know more of what to write and improve for the coming chapters.

Thanks for reading and I hope you stick with me for the next chapter!


	2. Hidden Secrets

Hey, guys! Sorry this chapter is actually about three weeks later than I intended it to be. I was having one of my friends help me edit and... they took a while to get back to me.

Anyway, I've started writing another slowburn fic that should start having chapters soon so that will cause a bit of delay in the third chapter but the good news is that I'm already halfway done with it.

I really enjoyed writing this chapter. It was a lot of fun to think of ways to make Lance and Keith squirm.

Also... anyone watch/read Death Note? If so, you'll see where I got my inspiration from.

Finally, let me clarify that Keith and Lance emdo/em know each other. They had some of the same classes in college until Keith left early to work in the BAU. So they aren't complete strangers. But like in the show, Keith doesn't really remember Lance and Lance has always felt like he's been in Keith's shadow and he's wanted to surpass him but he's also admired Keith's work.

Okay, enjoy everyone!

.

* * *

Keith ~

"Kidnapped?" Keith exclaimed.

Shiro bit his lip and pulled out his phone. Keith watched him closely, his mind a fog of emotions and thoughts. Shiro turned his phone towards Keith so that Keith could see. On the screen, the words **FIND HIM** were written underneath the symbol Keith knew all too well.

"They took him…" Keith said stupefied. He wondered if it was a strike at him. He wondered if they were trying to get back at him for all those years ago. Or maybe...

"Yes," Shiro asserted. "And we want your help in getting him back."

"Me?" Keith was the one they were suspecting for these murders and yet he was being recruited to help find Matt.

"Yes, you," Shiro said in exasperation. "Look, I already believe you are innocent, but either this is a group murder and they took Matt in response to us taking you, or the _real_ murderer took Matt in response to taking you. Based on the timing, there is no way you could have placed the note before we caught you. Either way, you'll either lead us to the murderer, turn in your teammate, or prove yourself guilty by misleading us. I see no way we lose here."

Keith looked pointedly at him. He could think of multiple ways they could lose if he was the murderer. Such as if they gave him a gun and he shot them, if he lead them to a bomb, if he lead them into a trap….

"Okay, I know there are ways where we lose but they are harder to believe than the ones where we succeed," Shiro amended apparently thinking the same types of scenarios as Keith. "Plus, don't you want to see Matt back safely?"

"Of course I do," Keith replied. "I would be happy to help find our friend." Matt was the one who had drawn Shiro and Keith to the BAU after he and Shiro had been friends for a couple of years before Keith became friends with Matt.

Shiro smiled and reached out his hand to grip Keith's wrist. "I'm glad," he whispered, "Now, get some sleep."

"I doubt I can do that. How about we start working?"

Shiro laughed, "I'm sure you aren't the only antsy one. I'll go ask the group."

With that he left, leaving Keith in silence.

 _How could Matt have been taken?_

Keith seriously wondered if it was revenge at him. He worried that the dripping lettering was written in Matt's blood.

He _had_ to find him. He could not subject Matt to that pain again.

Not again.

Reluctantly, Keith opened the bag to find more pillows inside than he would have thought possible. There were also at least four blankets in the pile Shiro had given him.

Keith pulled one of the pillows and one of the blankets out of their piles and laid his head on the desk. He had no intention of sleeping— there was no way in hell he could fall asleep right now— but he wanted something soft and warm.

Ugh. The pillow smelled like rain scented shampoo. _It's Lance's pillow, isn't it?_

That thought jolted through Keith and sort of made him feel weird and tingly. He had only met Lance that day but he had been interesting. Keith felt bad for hurting his feelings but… he couldn't shake that oddly bright smile out of his head. He didn't like it. He sat up and decided that he did not want to lay his head on Lance's pillow.

He couldn't sleep anyway, not with Matt captured.

* * *

Shiro~

"So, Keith says he would be happy to join our group."

Pidge and Hunk both whooped with excitement and adrenaline, Lance, Allura, and Coran looked more skeptical.

"And," Shiro continued, "he wants to get started working tonight. He doesn't want to leave Matt caught for long."

"Sounds great to me," Pidge said.

"What are we going to start on, though?" Allura asked. "We don't have any leads and we can't go investigating the mall crime scenes until it is day time."

"True," Hunk added quietly. "We also can't interview the Matt's coworkers until later."

"But we could at least go to my place," Pidge argued. "Then we could search it and get _some_ work done without bothering anyone."

"I think that is an excellent idea," Coran said pleasantly. "We can all go over to Pidge's place and look for signs of a break in or any other clues and notes that the kidnapper could have left."

"So, what about Keith?" Lance asked. "If he wants to help, and we are all leaving for Pidge's place, should we take him with us? Or should we leave him here?"

"I think we should take him," Shiro said.

"How?" Hunk asked.

"I think we need to keep him close to us," Allura agreed.

"Maybe we could handcuff him to one of us?" Shiro suggested.

"Who?" Allura asked. "Shiro, Pidge, and Hunk are clearly out because of their emotional empathy and I do _not_ want to take him."

"I will," Lance said with quiet, cool confidence.

Shiro looked at him warily. "Lance…" He could not see how this would go well. He could not see how Lance would be okay with this.

"Sure," Lance smiled, "I want to be better than him so I had better start learning how to be better."

"Alright," Pidge said with a sly grin, "I think this will work out well. I'm going to go get some handcuffs." They bounded off mischievously.

"Get ones with a long chain!" Shiro called out after them.

Allura scowled, "I still don't really trust him. Plus, can Lance really handle Keith if he… you know…"

"Snaps?" Shiro said, "Look, Allura, I would be happy to take Keith but I understand not. But I still trust both Keith _and_ Lance with my life."

She pursed her lips. "Alright. Fine. I'm just worried that he is going to hurt the team."

"Don't worry, Allura," Coran said. "We'll watch him."

She sighed, "I know. I'm more terrified that he _is_ going to betray us, than I am terrified _of_ him betraying us." She looked up at him, "I don't want _you_ to get hurt."

"I know," Shiro sighed. "But I have to trust Keith."

At that moment, Pidge came skipping through the door. "Hallo! I have now acquired the handcuffs." They looked at Lance and raised their eyebrows mischievously. "You ready to be chained to your Keith?"

Lance rolled his eyes, "Pidge!"

"Alright, alright," they muttered, handing the handcuffs to Shiro.

"I'll go get Keith," he said, heading off to Keith's cell.

He really hoped this would work out.

* * *

Lance~

Okay. Keith's reaction had been rather worth it.

When Shiro came out hauling Keith who had one handcuff on his left wrist while Shiro held the other end like Keith was a cow with a rope, Keith had tried to form his face to look innocent and non-threatening. At least, that was what Lance took it as. In reality, Keith looked more like he was a seven-year-old who had just gotten punched in the gut.

And then, Shiro had walked over to Lance and snapped the other handcuff onto Lance's right wrist.

When the two had been linked together, Keith's expression had only gotten better. His eyes had grown as wide as saucers and then narrowed to slits. He had spluttered for a moment before saying, "I-I'm chained to _you?_ "

"Oh," Lance said, pulling as much of his cocky attitude into his voice as he could, "am I too amazing for you?"

"Hardly," Keith snorted.

Suddenly, Pidge was upon them, squeezing them together with their arm. "Smile!" they cried, extending their phone to take a selfie. They bounded away, cackling.

"Y-You did _not_ just take a selfie," Keith said dumbfounded.

"Sorry," Hunk said, snapping a picture of the pair with his own phone, "I'm afraid we just want to remember this forever."

Keith sighed. Lance glanced at him and realized how close they were standing. He cleared his throat and took a step back. Keith turned towards him, "We are _so_ getting them back for that."

"When did we become partners?" Lance asked.

"When you guys decided to chain us together," Keith replied. "It doesn't mean I like you, but I would rather put up with you than argue endlessly. Plus, Pidge is a mastermind at pranking; I'm going to need help to overthrow them."

"Of course you would," Lance said with a grin, "You wouldn't have the brains to out-prank a mouse."

"I—" Keith started.

"Okay, that's enough talk," Shiro said. "We are all acquainted with Keith?"

Coran raised his hand, "Um, Yes. I believe I have not formally met Keith. Greetings, I'm Coran."

Keith nodded, "Okay. But, FYI, I'm bad with names. And, clearly, you all know my name."

"Yeah, Shiro wouldn't stop talking about you," Lance said with only a hint of malice. "He kept telling stories about the great detective Kogane whenever he got the chance." Keith whipped his head around to glare at Shiro. Lance couldn't help but notice the way his stupid mullet bounced on his shoulders.

"What did you tell them?" Keith demanded.

Shiro smirked.

"All of the best stories," Pidge supplied.

Keith's face soured. Lance smirked, though, Lance knew he probably wouldn't like Pidge's stories of him either.

"I don't believe the ones about how awesome you are," Lance said. "I'm waiting to pass my own judgement and, so far, I'm not impressed."

Keith rolled his eyes.

"Alright," Allura said, Stepping to the center of the group. She was such a good, natural leader and her voice carried so pleasantly. "We need to get working or there is no point for us to all be here." Lance remembered when he had first arrived at the BAU and how he had tried to hit on Allura. It hadn't exactly worked out though, especially after Lance figured out that she had a crush on Shiro. But he didn't think it was returned. That, or Shiro was oblivious.

Lance paused, wondering how Keith could be related to Shiro. They didn't have the same last name and despite both having black hair and smokey eyes, they didn't look alike. Shiro had the freakin' body of a god, except for his prosthetic arm. He was fit with broad shoulders and a comforting grin. Even his white bangs and the odd scar across his nose just added to his sexyness. But he was more of a 'dad' for Lance.

For Keith, he was completely different. His mullet and bangs made his face look smaller and his eyes larger. He was lean and thin but he was also very obviously fit and could probably hold his own in hand-to-hand combat. Lance admired the way he held himself with guarded confidence as though just _daring_ you to question him.

Lance was snapped out of his ponderings when Coran spoke: "Allura's right," he said, standing erect with his hands folded behind his back like he was a military general. "Our plan is to travel to Pidge's and then we search for clues. Are we ready to head out?"

Everyone nodded.

"Does everyone know the way?" Pidge asked.

Keith, Hunk, and Shiro nodded but Coran, Allura, and Lance looked clueless. Lance couldn't help but be a little envious of the team who knew Pidge's place. He wondered if Coran and Allura felt out of the loop too.

"Okay. That's simple enough," they pointed at Keith and Lance as they spoke. "Keith, you lead Lance in his car. Shiro, would you take the van with the rest of us?"

Lance noticed Shiro sigh. "Nope. I'm good with that."

"Cool," Pidge continued, "I would drive Hunk and Coran, but my car's a bit messy and I think that will work better than anything else."

Lance wished that Hunk could go with him instead, but clearly he and Keith were in the same car because of the handcuffs. It would be fun getting in the car...

They had mostly driven in silence (after crawling over the seats to get in through the same door) with Keith giving occasional directions until they reached about halfway there. Keith had looked out the window and quietly whispered something Lance couldn't hear.

"What was that?"

"There," Keith pointed to the building outside of his window. "That's where I live. I was heading for work when the white haired girl—"

"Allura," Lance interjected.

"Yeah. When Allura took me in her car and to the office."

There was a lamenting guarded tone to Keith's voice, like he was sad he had been taken away, but there was also something else that Lance couldn't quiet place.

Though he was driving, Lance glanced at Keith and noticed his downcast eyes.

Keith surprised him by whispering, "I'm sorry," he paused. "For earlier."

Lance's mind flashed back to when Keith had profiled him. Lance remembered the self-hatred he had bottled up inside. It was still red and throbbing like a fresh wound, but it was also cold and distant. He didn't especially want to reignite the pain.

Keith shocked him further by continuing, "Look, I know what it is like to be profiled and it sucks. I know you have more secrets and, honestly, if I tried I could probably figure them out in a minute. But I want to respect your privacy and I swear I don't know any more than what I said."

Lance steeled himself, trying to decide what to say. He remained quiet for another two blocks before he responded, "Thank you for apologizing. I'm not quite ready to forgive you, yet though."

Keith nodded.

"I know we are chained together and are going to be stuck side by side for the next… however long, so I would really like you to get to know me as _me_ and not the person you profile me as."

Keith nodded again, "As long as you don't see me as a criminal and let me be the person you get to know me as, then we have a deal."

"Deal," Lance said with a grin.

"Okay, spill it." Keith said. "What has Shiro told you guys about me?"

Lance began laughing, "Mostly, he just talks about you in awe. But there is one story which is his favorite. He calls it the Invisible Door Incident."

"Oh god," Keith muttered.

"Yep."

"Of all of the stories," Keith whispered as he buried his head in his hands, "it just _had_ to be that one."

"What's your version of the story?" Lance asked.

"It was on maybe my second mission?" Keith started. "I had stayed up late the night before because I had been watching this show…. Anyway, I was really tired the next day so when we finally caught the guy, no thanks to me, he was in his house. We opened the door and started searching for him. I saw him run out the sliding glass doors that lead to the back yard. So then… I ran after him without thinking about the glass. I ran face-first into the glass door and was knocked back. I was so stunned and exhausted, that I managed to pass out right there. Hunk and Matt chased the guy while Shiro stayed back with me to make sure I was alive. It was really embarrassing, especially because it was my second case and I was still really young at the time."

"Wow," Lance said. "That is a pretty epic failure. I'm sure that the unsub had to stop to laugh hysterically, leading, ultimately, to his downfall."

"Oh, yes," Keith grimaced, but it wasn't entirely unpleasant. "Everyone had a good laugh at me. And apparently, my story has been immortalized. I'll get payback at some point."

"Well," Lance said, "for that, I'll tell you one of my own embarrassing stories."

"I'm all ears," Keith said.

Lance started talking without really thinking about his story, "When I was younger, there was a test we were doing in school and I had really bad anxiety over taking it. When I took the test, I had misbubbled starting on, like, question two. I panicked because there was literally no time left for me to correct it, so, out of sheer panic, I ripped the scantron."

"You _ripped_ the freaking test?" Keith laughed into his hand.

"Yep," Lance said. "And to make it worse, once I did, I burst into tears and ran out of the classroom and hid in the girl's toilets because I thought they would never find me there."

"Let me guess," Keith said, "They found you because they heard you crying and you were in a lot of trouble."

"Surprisingly, I wasn't in that much trouble because my teacher had me plead for anxiety and just let me retake the test. But, I couldn't live it down in class for the rest of the year and some people continued to mock me through high school."

"Wow," Keith said, "That is quiet the embarrassment."

"Uh huh."

"But at least you didn't almost lose a serial killer because of stupidity."

"At least you weren't mocked for something you did as a seven year old for the rest of your life."

"Psh," Keith scoffed, "Pidge and Shiro are just as bad as a class of kids."

"Though you might be right, you only worked with them for half the time I was in school," Lance countered.

"Six. I worked with them for six freaking years."

"And I endured people mocking me for eleven!"

"You don't even remember half of those years," Keith said as they pulled into the parking lot for Pidge's apartment complex.

"Sure I do! I was scarred enough to remember the day itself!"

Lance pulled the car into park and stepped out, still arguing with Keith as Keith crawled out the same door (because of their handcuffs).

"Hey!" Pidge shouted, "The slowpokes arrived. Finally. Now we can work on _finding my brother._ "

Keith laughed and started walking briskly towards the group assembled in front of the door leading to Pidge's apartment complex. Lance followed him, completely hating the fact that his eyes lingered a moment too long on Keith's long hair as he walked and on the soft, pleasant sound of Keith's laughter.

...

* * *

Keith~

God.

Why were he and Lance getting along?

That is to say, if you could call arguing about who had made a bigger fool out of himself 'getting along.'

Keith wasn't good at telling stories. It helped that Shiro had been the one to first bring it up and that Lance had prompted him, but he still didn't like telling the stories.

But he liked Lance's story. He could imagine a pouty-faced Lance huddled in the girl's bathroom with his eyes red from crying all too easily.

Keith shook his head, the laughter draining from his body. _It doesn't matter_. He didn't have time to dwell on anything so he just shoved whatever fucked up emotions he had down into a dark part of his brain. Right now, he needed to go into full detective mode so that he could find his friend, Matt.

The group walked up the flight of stairs to reach Pidge's apartment and then they unlocked the door and opened it so all seven of them could enter.

Keith had such vivid memories of them crashing there as a group, having late night parties after a particularly successful and difficult case. He remembered the time they had celebrated Matt's birthday by hiding all of his things throughout the office, his car, and the apartment so that he had to search for hours to find them. He remembered dragging Shiro to one of Pidge's after parties and having a blast at doing a blind tasting challenge with the candy Pidge had that was over three years expired.

But he also remembered coming here with Matt and Pidge as they sought out ways to find Hunk and Shiro. It hurt him to think about. He remembered asking if he should stay at their place after everyone was safe, and Pidge and Matt had just dismissed him, unable to withstand seeing anyone. But Keith had agreed. He didn't really want to be reminded of everything just yet.

 _Shit_. While Keith had been lost in memories, Pidge had started talking.

"—been here for a couple of days but he isn't an adolescent so we don't have as much to worry about. I know the note was left today because I left for work at 8:30 a.m.. That _should_ rule out the possibility that Keith placed the note here."

Shiro stepped forward and looked pointedly at Lance and Keith as he spoke, "We want to look for signs of a break-in. Anything out of place or that looks suspicious. Coran, you search the kitchen. Pidge and Hunk, search Pidge's room and then the bathroom. Allura and I will take this living room. And Keith and Lance should take Matt's room."

Everyone nodded at their assignments and took off to start searching. Keith would have much preferred to search something mundane like the kitchen than Matt's room. There were too many memories.

Keith led the way to Matt's room which was across the long hallway from Pidge's room. Holding his breath, he gripped the door knob hoping that he didn't see something like when he and Matt had opened that basement door. With a shudder, he thrust the door open to find…

Nothing.

It looked exactly as it had before, with very little variance. Matt's anime posters lined the wall with every available space. A white desk in the corner was cluttered with his own fanart and the art supplies to draw it. His computer lay closed on his plain bed that was pushed into the other corner. His floor was covered with dirty laundry, mostly clean dishes, and crumpled balls of paper. His bookshelves were overflowing into leaning piles of books on the ground.

Keith snorted out a laugh, "It's just like I remember."

"That's great. Now, let's see who can find a clue faster," Lance joked.

Keith raised his left wrist, the chain jingling. "Um, we can't walk more than three feet apart."

"Then I guess I'll just have to drag your sorry ass across the room until I find something first."

Keith's competitive nature sparked to life and he dove towards the desk littered with papers first. He shuffled through amazing sketches from Fullmetal Alchemist (Brotherhood), Death Note, Black Butler, Attack on Titan, and Tokyo Ghoul. He laughed at a particularly detailed drawing of Grell clinging to Sebastian's coattails and pleading with him to go on a date. Keith remembered when Matt had sat him down one day when they were both off and forced him to watch the first season of Black Butler. The whole time Matt had just raved about Sebastian, Grell, and the Undertaker, and though he tried, Keith couldn't deny that all three were… pleasing to look at.

Lance didn't bother looking at the drawings, though he did take care not to damage them. Instead he rushed onto the bookshelf just to the right of the desk. The chain pulled at Keith's arm but he refused to move.

Together, the moved onto the closet but found nothing but an empty laundry basket and a pile of half-heartedly folded clothes that Matt had shoved to the side, too lazy to put them away.

They left the closet and continued their search, becoming more inventive with their searching locations as they continually came up empty on clues.

"Dude," Lance muttered quietly. Keith turned to see him holding a book. The cover was red. It was a hardcover of the book Keith knew very well. He couldn't even remember how many times he had read it. _Simon vs. the Homosapien Agenda._

Keith suddenly felt very protective of the book. He knew it was Matt's favorite and he wanted to keep Lance from harming it. "Lance what are you doing?" he said, his voice warning and unsettled.

"I—" Lance faltered, his eyes flicking up from the book only to look back down. "I picked up this book because I was trying to find a specific quote and…" He shook his head turning the book around for Keith to see.

Keith expected to see the sappy emails between Simon and Blue or maybe some drawing Matt had stuck inside of the book. He had not expected to see a journal. A journal that had been written in. The messy chicken-scratch was unmistakably Matt's. It was a plain dark leather journal with cream, lined pages.

Keith lunged out and seized the journal from Lance's slack hands.

Keith rather wanted to read through the whole journal, to find something about that case or to find something about a calm and warm memory. But instead he flipped to the last entry.

Lance creeped around and looked over his shoulder as Keith started reading.

 _I think I'm being followed. I can't be sure but I SWEAR I've seen the same two men around wherever I go._

 _I'm going to tell Pidge tonight. But, they're asleep and I don't want to wake them. I had to stay at work late because those men were lurking around my car and I didn't trust anything about them._

 _Did I lock the front door when I came in? The windows?_

 _I'm terrified. I can't show that to Pidge, but I'm terrified that they're back. What do they want with me._

 _Wait. What was that? I think I just heard someone coming up the apartment stairs. I'm going to go see._

 _Wow,_ Keith thought. This was probably the last thing Matt had written before he had been kidnapped. The note Pidge found was left _after_ Matt had been taken. _Right?_

"We found a clue!" Lance cried, reading over Keith's shoulder. "Come on, let's take it to Shiro."

"Lance," Keith scolded, "This isn't something to be happy about. Matt is missing."

Lance was already walking briskly down the hallway, pulling Keith behind him. "Yes, but we just became one step closer to finding him— SHIRO!"

Shiro jumped like a spooked cat and whirled around to face Lance. "Lance, Keith," he said slowly, as though he were calming him heartbeat, "What is it?"

"We found a clue," Lance said jubilantly.

"You… wait… what?" Shiro looked perplexed as Keith handed him the journal. Only as it left his hand did he realize that he had kept the cover on it that came from _Simon vs. the Homosapien Agenda_. Shiro stared at the book blankly and then at Keith and Lance.

"You have to open it," Lance said, his voice sounding eager.

Lance and Keith watched as Shiro opened the journal, his eyes widened and he automatically flipped to the last entry. His eyes skimmed over the page and then he looked up. "Good work guys. There may still be other clues but I'm going to go and see if anything about this is familiar to Pidge. Maybe Matt mentioned something to them before he was taken. He did say that he had been followed for a couple of days."

Shiro took off, walking quickly down the hall, still muttering to himself.

Allura was standing in front of them wide-eyed. "Nice going!" She said eagerly. "I do so hope that we can find Matt."

Usually Keith was a pretty realistic person. Sometimes he was a pessimist. But in this case, he couldn't be realistic, and he _had_ to believe that Matt was okay. "We _will_ find him," Keith said with a bite to his voice.

Allura, annoyingly, tilted her head and softened her eyes as though she pitied Keith.

Oh, no. He was _not_ going to be pitied. He steeled his gaze and glared at Allura.

"Did you find anything?" Lance asked, apparently oblivious to Keith's dislike of Allura. Keith turned his glare onto Lance as they spoke.

"No, nothing that would give us a clue. We were searching for signs of break in but…"

"There wasn't a break-in," Lance said, nodding. "According to his journal at least."

Allura nodded. Keith _hated_ the awkward silence. He felt like the chain connecting him to Lance was glinting maliciously. He wanted to leave both of the idiots before him and go find Matt himself.

Actually, he would be happy to do just about anything to get out of the weird stillness and silence that had enveloped them. It set him on edge and he was already enough on edge that he didn't need any encouragement.

"Lance," Keith said sharply, "let's see how Hunk and Pidge are doing."

"Um. Okay," Lance muttered, allowing himself to be pulled along by Keith.

As they passed the kitchen, Keith noticed something moving before a orange-haired head popped around the corner, "Hi there!"

Keith jumped. Slightly. But so would anyone who saw an older and bright orange-haired man appearing from around the corner.

"Have you found anything?" he asked. Keith noted that his voice had the same accented edge as Allura's did. He wondered if they were related in any way.

"Yeah!" Lance said excitedly, stepping up to the man, Keith could not remember his name for the life of him. "We found Matt's journal and it has a entry from when we believe was right before he was taken."

"Wow," the man said. "That's pretty good. I haven't found squat."

 _What. Is. His. Name._ It was driving Keith crazy that he couldn't remember.

"Oh well," Lance said, "that's okay. I think the journal itself might give us a starting place for where to look."

"Coran!" Keith shouted, looking triumphant for having finally remembered the man's name.

Coran looked panicked and startled, Lance looked concerned and freaked out, and Keith could feel the red creeping up onto his cheeks. He hadn't meant to say it outloud.

"Yes?" Coran asked, his voice a bit higher and filled with concern. "Do you need something, Keith?"

Damn. He used Keith's name. Now, no matter what, Keith would be the awkward one. He could either be paranoid or he could be forgetful.

"Um, I…" Ugh. What should he say? _I forgot your name and was super excited to remember it?_

"It's okay," Coran said, "Forgot my name, eh?"

Keith nodded solemnly.

"Don't worry about it, kid," Coran smiled.

"Um, we're going to go find Shiro," Keith said, deciding to leave.

"Okay." Coran said, turning towards the front door to inspect it.

Keith dragged Lance to Pidge's bedroom, refusing to look at Lance. And then he noticed that he was gripping Lance's wrist.

In a moment of sheer panic, Keith threw Lance's arm down and refused to look at him. He tilted his head down hoping that his hair hid the blush that had covered his face and neck.

 _SHIT! What are you doing? Lance is_ horrible _!_

* * *

Lance~

Um. _What just happened?_

They were talking to Coran and then suddenly, Keith was holding his hand to drag him towards Shiro. And then Keith had stopped down the hallway, frozen, like he had realized something and he had thrown Lance's hand down like it was poison.

 _Rude._

Lance was just excited that he had found a clue. He had picked up the book because it was one of his favorites and he had been looking to find one of Simon's ass lines to say to Keith. He hadn't expected to find a journal inside, but he was so happy that he had. He felt like he had done something great. _He_ had found the journal when searching right next to the great Keith Kogane.

Now, they stepped into Pidge's room and Lance saw the epitome of Pidge. All of Pidge's messy room was scattered with computer junk and video games that they had yet to play. The bed was buried under a mass of trash, clothes, and tech-looking devises.

Lance wondered how the messy child could sleep at night. _Probably not too well._

He watched as Pidge noticed them and bounded through and around the piles nimbly like they had the messy floor memorized.

 _Scratch that. Pidge sleeps like a rock in here._

"Hi guys," they said their eyes darting between Keith and Lance, "I'm glad you found the clue—"

"I found the clue," Lance interjected with a smug smile.

"—but," Pidge continued, "I didn't get to talk to Matt so I didn't know he was being followed. I tried tracking his cell phone but it's dead and most likely with him. The last known location of his phone was at his office."

"We could check there and see if his phone is there or if any of his coworkers noticed anything suspicious," Keith suggested.

"He wouldn't leave his phone there," Pidge said, shaking their head, "but maybe someone noticed something off or he mentioned something."

"We should also look in earlier entries," Lance joined their conversation. "We could see if he wrote anything about people tailing him or wanting something from him."

Keith opened his mouth to reply but Pidge beat him to it, "Already on it," they pointed to where Shiro and Hunk sat on a less cluttered edge of Pidge's bed to pour over the journal. "Those two are already working on it."

Keith snorted, "How did you not see that?"

Lance's eye twitched in annoyance. "I was a little preoccupied looking at all of _this_ … around me."

"I think, for tonight," Pidge said, "the best thing to do would be to study a bit of the journal, though I feel guilty reading my brother's private stuff, and go to bed. I think tomorrow, we should look in Matt's office and see if his coworkers know anything."

Keith nodded, "I think that's a good plan. Maybe we should read the journal in shifts though so we don't know everything about Matt."

"You feel guilty too?"

"Yeah, a bit," Keith said. He seemed almost reluctant. If Lance were to get his hands on a journal Hunk wrote, he would be reading it in a heartbeat to use as blackmail. Lance suspected that something had happened to draw the two closer together and maybe allow them to open up a bit. Keith was certainly a closed book to Lance.

At that moment, Allura and Coran walked up behind them and peered into the cluttered room from the hallway.

"Okay!" Pidge called loudly, "Too many people in my room. Out. Everyone. Out."

Lance and the rest of the group didn't think twice about agreeing to Pidge. They all scrambled out into the hallway as fast as they could. Pidge closed the door behind them as they left.

"Pidge," Shiro said, "I was listening to your conversation and I think you have the right plan." Shiro looked down at his watch to check the time. "Right now, it is almost ten. I think we should all head to bed and then we meet early tomorrow and go to Matt's work to see if any of his coworkers noticed anything off. I'll take the journal and read a little bit more before tomorrow."

Everyone nodded and mumbled their agreement.

"Finally," Lance muttered, rubbing his eyes. He usually got up at five or six in the morning and he needed his rest so he was not pleased with having to stay up late.

Keith had caught Shiro's eye. "Shiro? Where am I going to sleep?"

Shiro, also, rubbed his eyes, pinching the bridge of his nose. "I'm not going to drive you back to the BAU to be locked in a cell, unsupervised all night."

Allura looked meaningfully at him, against the idea of Keith staying in one of their houses. Shiro sighed, "I can't take you to my place because I'm too 'close' to you. Lance?"

"What?" Lance asked, slow to get Shiro's meaning.

"Would you be willing to take Keith to your place to sleep?"

"What?" Lance asked, this time bewildered instead of confused. "Fuck no. I'm not dragging _him_ with me all night!"

Lance sighed as he stepped inside of his apartment. He walked into his room after Hunk said goodnight and headed to his own room.

He glared at his already trashed and raided bed where Hunk had taken ninety percent of his pillows.

"So where am I going to sleep?" Keith asked.

Lanced moaned. He still didn't know how he had lost that fight. But there Keith was, following behind him awkwardly like a puppy on a leash.

"I don't know," Lance said shrugging. "On the floor?"

Keith groaned and closed his eyes as though he were trying very hard not to get angry at Lance.

Lance threw down one of his few remaining pillows, got out a few blankets, and made a makeshift bed for Keith.

"There," he said, weariness overtaking him. "You can sleep there."

"Fine," Keith huffed, laying down without even bothering to take off his boots or belt. "You are so generous."

Lance rolled his eyes and said, "I'm going to brush my teeth so get up."

"Do it in the morning," Keith replied. "Your breath won't smell any worse then than it does now."

Lance opened his mouth to reply, anger rolling through his body, but he didn't know what to say. He turned around, frustrated, and marched towards the bathroom only to be yanked back by his right arm. Keith's left was held out but Keith was immobile.

"I told you," Keith said, "Brush your teeth in the morning. I'm tired and I've had a pretty fucked up day. I would just like to go to sleep."

Lance glared at him, but his eyes were closed already. Lance let the chain relax for a minute and then violently pulled towards the bathroom. He watched as Keith was flipped over and was pulled across the ground.

"SHIT!" Keith shouted. "Lance, you bastard! That _hurt_!" Keith was rubbing his shoulder and then Lance heard a sharp popping sound.

"Did I dislocate your shoulder?" Lance asked with a mixture of panic and horror.

"Yeah," Keith muttered, "But it happens all of the time."

Silence. Lance still wanted to brush his teeth but he didn't know what to say to Keith. Then, Keith surprised him by standing up and sighing, "I suppose I'm already up. Let's go. Just hurry."

Lance gulped, heading towards the bathroom. He couldn't help but feel guilty. "Do you need ice or something?" he asked as he ran his toothbrush under the tap water and began brushing his teeth.

Keith shook his head, "No, I used to pop my shoulder out of its socket as a circus trick for the kids in school. It was the only time anyone paid any attention to me."

Before Lance could stop himself, he heard words flowing from his toothpaste-foam covered mouth, "When I was young, I would steal my mother and grandmother and my older sisters' make-up and put it on myself. I was actually pretty good and some of my sisters would ask me to apply their make-up for them. Those were some of the only times my family noticed me for having a skill. For being the boy that can apply make-up."

Lance looked at Keith through the reflections of the mirror. He didn't know why he was telling Keith that. It was such a personal experience but yet, the words had just flowed out of him.

In the mirror, Keith had opened his mouth and then closed it, his lips still slightly apart. He settled his face into a scowl, "I'm sorry," he whispered. "That must have sucked."

Lance shrugged like it didn't bother him. "I have a talent almost no other boy has. I choose to think that's pretty cool. And don't get me wrong, my family loves me, they just don't have that much time to spend with _just me_."

Keith nodded. Lance stood for a minute, having finished brushing his teeth. "We can go now," he said softly.

Keith shook his head as though waking from a particularly deep trance. "Yes. We can go."

They walked back to the beds. Lance watched Keith lay down, fully dressed on the blankets. It made him feel awkward and guilty for some reason. "Do… do you want to borrow a pair of sleeping pants?"

Keith shook his head, "I'm good."

That made Lance feel even more awkward as he removed his shoes, socks, and pants. He usually only slept in boxer shorts. With Keith there, though, Lance put on a pair of sweatpants and climbed into bed. He went to take off his shirt and noticed the dangling chain between them. There was no way he could take off his shirt with that chain.

But… it was so uncomfortable to wear.

Lance turned off his bedside lamp, casting the room in darkness and then pulled the base of his shirt up. He got his head and right arm out of the shirt and then the fabric fell onto the chain.

 _Perfect._

"DUDE?!" Keith yelled, "What is this? Is this your shirt? Your fucking shirt?"

"Yeah?" Lance said shyly. What was he supposed to say? He didn't even know why he was shy or why his ears were heating up oddly.

Keith scoffed, "I am _not_ sleeping with your shirt so you can cuddle it all you want."

Lance didn't have a good comeback. He snatched the shirt and tried to pull it up to himself, but he only got it caught in the chain, yanking Keith up too. _Fuck. I'm making a huge mess of this,_ Lance thought.

Finally, he got it up and held the cloth to him. His heart was beating _way_ too quickly. He felt out of breath and panicky. _What the fuck is wrong with me?_

Lance laid his head on one of his pillows and forced himself to try to fall asleep. He couldn't. He turned to face the wall only to have Keith cry out in frustration. "Okay. This isn't going to work. I can't sleep with my arm half raised in the air."

Lance bit his lip. He _really_ didn't like the idea that came into his head, yet he found himself talking anyway. "I suppose you could come up here. There is a lot of space…"

He only had a full sized bed but it would be enough to hold both of them.

Keith paused. Lance waited, holding his breath.

"Fine. I suppose it would work."

Lance heard the rustling of blankets and the whump of a pillow onto his bed. The old mattress springs creaked with the added weight but they settled quickly and soon, Keith was next to him.

Lance focused on steadying his breathing. He wasn't even friends with Keith. He didn't like Keith.

 _Then why can't I breathe normally?_

"Your bed is so… soft." Keith said quietly.

Lance was taken aback. He had a fairly firm mattress, granted it had been worn down through years of use, but it was still a firm mattress. What kind of rock did Keith sleep on?

"It isn't that soft. How hard is your bed?"

Keith paused, "Not that hard, but compared to yours, it would be a rock."

"Huh," Lance muttered.

 _Shut up!_ He yelled at his beating heart. It was ridiculous. It didn't know what it was talking about. Or… beating about.

Lance hated the silence. He hated that he had taken his shirt off, but there was no way to put it back on. He hated the warmth of Keith's body next to him.

He especially hated the way his stomach got that odd twinge, like butterflies were starting to awaken.

But he knew that was ridiculous.

* * *

Keith~

Shit.

Shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit.

Keith was laying next to Lance— he didn't even know his last name!

And stupid Lance had taken his shirt off. And it had freaking hit Keith in the face.

And, as he laid in the dark, trying (and failing) to fall asleep, Keith couldn't help but notice the faint shadows that played across Lance's skin. He couldn't see super well, but he could see the soft rise and fall of his chest under the blanket that only went up to his mid-chest. All Keith wanted to do was to reach out and touch Lance's smooth skin. But that was completely absurd and uncalled for.

He didn't know Lance nor did he like him. Not even as a friend!

They were rivals with Lance trying to do better than him at the one thing Keith was good at: being a detective. Keith didn't even know why they were rivals but they were competitive and Lance wanted to do better than _him._

"Are you still awake?" Lance asked softly.

Keith didn't especially want to respond because he didn't really want to stay up late talking; he was tired. "Yeah," he replied softly, deciding that Lance knew he was awake and it wouldn't help anyone if he lied.

More silence. Why had Lance asked him if he wasn't going to say anything?

"Matt was your friend," Lance said, his voice a hushed whisper.

He hadn't said it like it was a question, but Keith said "Yeah," anyway.

"Only friends?" Lance whispered.

Keith's tired mind woke up and started working in overdrive. Lance assumed, or at least suspected that… _that Matt and I… that we were lovers_. Keith closed his eyes.

First of all: _No._

What did that mean? Second, it meant that Lance assumed he was gay or some form of LGBTQ+ person. Third, it meant that Lance was… _used_ to the idea. Or at least open himself. Anyone who wasn't exposed to LGBTQ+ media generally didn't assume others to be. So, either Lance has a sibling or…. Lance couldn't possibly be….

Keith shook his head and then answered simply, "Yeah, we're only friends." But it wasn't simple. Matt had helped him discover himself. One thing Keith was certain of though, it was that he and Matt were _friends_ , not lovers and neither of them wanted to be anything more.

"Oh. Okay," Lance said shifting. The chain between them rattled softly.

Keith kind of wished he could see Lance's face. Though he had profiled the guy before, he had promised not to anymore. Still, he couldn't help but kind of want to profile him again.

And even profiling wouldn't tell him everything about Lance. He wanted to know if he had a large family. He wanted to know how he and Hunk had met. He wanted to know why Lance wanted to be a good detective so badly.

Yet, despite his curiosity, he wouldn't ask any questions.

He listened to Lance's breathing. It was still shallow and regular. It wasn't deep enough for sleep.

Keith stared at the ceiling and tried to force his eyes closed so he could sleep.

* * *

Shiro~

Shiro had taken Allura home, since she lived pretty close to Pidge's. Hunk had gone back with Lance and Keith, and Coran asked Shiro to drop him off at the BAU. Shiro had promised to pick Allura up in the morning since her car was still at the BAU and he didn't feel like driving back.

Once he had gotten home and was able to be by himself, he melted onto his bed.

He was glad that Lance had found the journal because just knowing that Matt _knew_ something was wrong greatly decreases their suspect list. It also increases Matt's chance for survival if he is being used as bait or if they are trying to get something out of him. At the same time, it decreases his chances if it is personal. Shiro felt pretty confident that if it was personal, whoever captured Matt would be wanting the whole group so Matt would be the bait.

Shiro looked at the worn leather cover of the journal. He had taken off the _Simon vs. the Homosapien Agenda_ cover and left it on Matt's bed. Looking at the thin journal, Shiro couldn't help but feel guilty. There was a reason that Matt had hidden the thing. He didn't want people reading it.

Still, Matt was his best friend… he had been one of the most important people to Shiro... but Shiro wanted him back more than anything. Shiro wished he could respect Matt's private life and not read too much into it, but he _had_ to find a clue to help rescue Matt.

And then there were the killings.

Part of him hoped that they were connected and that they only had to catch one person/ group, but the other part hoped they weren't connected because if they, then it means that Matt's kidnappers have the capacity to kill. He couldn't imagine a world without Matt in it.

Shiro sighed and picked up the journal. He wanted to read until he fell asleep. He flipped the pages to find where he had left off.

 _Keith and Shiro came over again today. I decided to show them one of my favorite movies:_ Inception.

 _Keith thoroughly enjoyed it which was nice. I'm a bit nervous because I let him borrow my most prized book. I hope he likes it and doesn't think I'm a weirdo._

 _I wonder if he'll assume I'm gay because of it. I haven't told him about the crush I have but I wonder if he would be okay with it. If my crush would ever notice me, that is._

 _Keith, don't hate me. Please._

Shiro closed the journal slowly.

 _That entry… is Matt gay?_

Of course it didn't change the way Shiro thought about him, quite the contrary. It made Shiro excited. Nervous. _Could his feelings not be unrequited?_ If he had a crush on one of the members of the team, then he almost certainly had to have a crush on a boy. Until Allura, the team hadn't had any girls.

He wondered if Matt had a crush on Keith. It might make sense, but at the same time, they had always just been close friends ever since Shiro had introduced the two. Pidge, Matt, Keith, and him would hang out together and split off into small groups and hang out. Matt and Keith had gotten along quite well because of their similar interests and close work in the field at work.

But the words in the journal, for some reason, made him think that his crush was on someone else. _But… then why would he need Keith's approval?_

Shiro knew that he didn't get attracted to people easily and if he did get a crush, he would brush it away telling himself that his job was more important than a crush. But Shiro… he had felt something for Matt. He had just forced himself to forget it. To move past it.

Shiro had been so proud of Keith when he had come out and he had joked about them being 'the gay brothers.'

Either way, Shiro really hated knowing secrets about Matt that he had intended to keep secret. But he also wanted to keep reading and learn more.

Mostly for the case.

* * *

Lance~

Lance woke up pleasantly to the soft chime of his alarm. He flipped the snooze button deciding that he could use and extra five minutes. He laid back down, turning his head away from the phone. He pressed into the warmth next to him.

He heard a soft moaning from the warmth. It wasn't annoyed but contented. Lance opened his dreary sleep-eyes and saw the tangle of long black hair. His eyes closed again, too tired to think about it. He nestled his head into the crook of the warmth neck, wrapping his arms around the cloth. He sighed contentedly and dozed for a few minutes.

The person next to him stiffened in his grasp. "Lance," a voice whispered harshly.

Lance groaned, not wanting to move.

"Lance, get up," the voice was hesitant but still a harsh whisper.

Lance blinked his eyes dully and slowly sat up, removing his arms from the person next to him.

As he sat up, his vision cleared and he looked at the person next to him.

Keith.

 _Keith._

He had… held Keith while they slept.

Lance looked down and realized he was shirtless. With a gulp, Lance grabbed the shirt from the chain and struggled to pull it over his head from his right arm.

He got stuck. His arm was twisted at a weird angle and his head was stuck in the fabric.

"You are so pathetic," Keith said. His voice wasn't as harsh or as certain as it had been the other day.

"Am not," Lance muttered. His alarm started to chime.

"Do you need help?" Keith asked, some of his old snark back into his voice.

"Of course not," Lance said indignantly. He could feel his face heating up into a blush. He flailed around, pulling his shirt as stretched as it could be. "I have this completely under control."

He could almost feel Keith rolling his eyes. "Okay _Master Detective._ "

Lance growled and managed to pull his head through the hole followed by his arm. "I don't know what you are talking about. I _am_ a Master Detective."

"Oh, please," Keith said, "If anything, I am the Master and you are my apprentice."

"Watch it Kogane," Lance countered. "At least I didn't giveup on being a detective."

Keith glared, ready to make a comeback when there was a knock at the door. Hunk opened it. "Hey, are you two ready to—" Hunk's eyes grew wide and his sentence trailed off. His face turned bright red and Lance looked at him questioningly.

 _Then_ he realized how it must look. With him and Keith. In a bed. Together.

"Hunk," Lance said sharply, "It is not what it looks like. The chain—"

"Nope," Hunk held up a hand to stop Lance, "I don't care. Just get ready to leave." He left and closed the door behind him.

Lance was glad he had gotten his shirt back on. He didn't want to meet Keith's gaze, but he couldn't help but glance at him. His face was expressionless except… was there a slight tinge of pink to his cheeks?

Lance stood up and Keith followed suit. Lance awkwardly walked into the bathroom and blushed. "Keith, could you, uh, wait outside the door?"

"Huh?" Keith asked before understanding dawned on him, "Oh! Yeah, okay."

Lance breathed a sigh of relief and then relieved himself. He changed into jeans and then grabbed his toothbrush. "Okay, you can use the bathroom now."

Keith nodded and went inside while Lance waited, leaning against the wall just outside, brushing his teeth. Keith was done in lighting speed, his hair glistened with water from where he had tried to tame the shorter strands at the top of his head.

Lance walked in, spit out his toothpaste into the sink and, rinsing his brush, placed it back in the holder.

"I'm sure we have a spare toothbrush if you want," Lance said but Keith just shrugged, not meeting his gaze.

"I'm fine. We should get going."

Lance nodded, feeling an awkward twist in his chest. "Let me just get my phone." He walked over to where his phone was on his bedside table. He couldn't help but blush as he looked at the mess of blankets on his bed.

The two of them walked towards the front where Lance saw Hunk sitting on their rounded couch, reading a book.

"We're ready," Lance said loudly, trying to regain some of his old bravado.

"Finally," Hunk muttered.

They began walking, Hunk swinging the keys around one finger, when Hunk said, "You know, last night I was wondering what all of that movement was."

"Hunk!" Lance shouted, louder than he should have. He startled a flock of birds that were on the ground. "Dude, Keith and I only officially met yesterday."

Hunk raised his arms in surrender.

"No!" Lance said, "Just, _no!_ We just met. Officially. So really, it was just two friends hanging out." Lance remembered Keith from the college they had both gone to and the similar classes they had taken. He remembered always being in Keith's shadow. He remembered when Keith had left and Lance felt like it was _finally_ his time to show shat he could do.

Still, Keith was pretty hot… his attitude just sucked. Lance's face was bright red and he knew it. He _refused_ to look at Keith. _Refused._

* * *

Shiro~

Shiro had been at the office _hours before_ everyone else. He sat pacing and reading Matt's journal. He had a pretty good idea who Matt's crush was on and… he didn't know what to say.

He wondered if Keith knew who Matt's crush was on.

 _Anyway,_ he pushed the thought out of his mind because it _didn't matter._

What matters now is finding Matt.

Once it was the reasonable hour of 5:00 A.M., Shiro texted Allura, who was already awake, and went to pick her up. She invited him inside, ready to leave herself, but wanting to be hospitable for Shiro. She had a nice room that was mostly white with blue accents but, despite the cleanliness, it didn't seem to feel fake or staged. It just seemed lived in and nice. He noticed a large cage with mice inside and smiled. There were also large potted plants everywhere that made the room feel alive with the glow of colorful flowers.

Allura dashed into her room (Shiro didn't follow her in) and returned with her purse, smiling. "Ready to go?"

Shiro nodded. "Your apartment is so nice," he said.

"Huh? Oh, yeah," she said, looking around like she didn't know what it looked like. Though he supposed that everyone saw their home in a different view when guests came over.

Allura shifted awkwardly, "Are you ready?"

Shiro nodded, stood up, then his eye caught on a picture frame. He walked over and picked it up. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Allura stiffening as though she were worried about the picture.

The frame was simple black wood but the picture was of a young Allura, probably when she was six or seven, riding on her father's shoulder. Her mother was sitting down beside them smiling. They were on top of a hill covered in beautiful red flowers.

Shiro knew that Allura had lost her mother when she was nine because her mom got in a car wreck, but she rarely talked about her father. All Shiro knew was that he was now dead and Allura missed him very much.

Shiro placed the picture back on the shelf gingerly. "The red flowers are so beautiful," he said quietly before turning around. Allura looked shocked like she had expected him to ask something about the picture.

"I'm ready," Shiro said, pulling his keys out of his pocket and walking out the front door. Allura followed behind, locking the door behind her.

The sun hadn't risen yet but there was those lightened grey clouds on the horizon as though the sky was holding its breath for the sunrise while the stars all faded away.

They got into Shiro's black van and started to drive away in silence. Shiro felt bad for having made things awkward, but he didn't know what to say to fix them.

Then, Allura surprised Shiro by speaking in a soft voice, "They held him for three days."

Shiro glanced at her, wondering what she was talking about.

"My father. He had hidden me in a closet. He was captured while I stayed in that closet for two days. Finally, when I was so thirsty and hungry I couldn't stand it, I had run out and the FBI had found me. I was fourteen at the time. The agents sent someone to the house but they couldn't find my father. He had been in the neighbor's house after I left."

Shiro was left speechless. It felt like his brain had just switched off and he didn't know how to respond or form sentences anymore. The road in front of him went by like a dull grey blur.

"That's why I became an agent. I wanted to help people."

Shiro was lost. He had become an agent because it sounded interesting, not because of any backstory. And the words ' _I'm sorry'_ just didn't cut it.

Slowly, Shiro pulled to the side of the road and put the car in park. Allura was looking at him questioningly as he unbuckled his seatbelt and leaned over to give Allura a hug.

She gasped as Shiro wrapped his arms around her, burying his face in her silvery-white curls. "Thank you for telling me," he whispered. "I can't imagine how hard that must have been for you."

It was Allura's turn to be stunned silent. Slowly, she wrapped her arms around Shiro and rested her head on his shoulder.

A part of Shiro wanted to tell her about the… the case. He wanted to explain about the ugly scar on his nose, his white hair, or most noticeably, his missing arm, but he didn't want to negate her story. He didn't think that now was the right time to drop his worst story on her. Plus, anytime he opened his mouth to tell someone, the words got caught in his throat like a giant spider's web was in his throat.

Instead, he pulled away and held her shoulders. He noticed that there were slight trickles of tears running down her cheeks. Still, she was smiling at him with that wide, friendly grin.

Gently, Shiro wiped away her tears.

"Thank you, Shiro," she said softly, her hair slipping to cover her eyes as she turned back to face the front of the car. "You always know what to say."

Shiro knew that wasn't true, but he appreciated her compliment anyway.

After they arrived at the BAU, Shiro and Allura had stood around, waiting for the others, for a good amount of time before deciding to look over the journal.

"Have you read all of it?" Allura asked.

"Not quite. I've read most of it but it is pretty hard to read the personal thoughts and feelings of my… best friend. He doesn't write that much in way of feelings, he more just records events and catalogues the killers. Like for instance here:" Shiro flipped through the pages until he found the entry he wanted:

" _Today we were able to save a little girl from a kidnapping. Her name was Danelle. She was so sweet. I'm glad that we were able to stop the psychopath who was murdering children and leaving their bodies out in the woods."_

Shiro looked up at Allura, closing the notebook but still keeping his thumb between the pages. He was surprised to find that Allura was looking inquisitively at him instead of the journal. "What?" he asked.

"I was just wondering why you are so tense." She thwacked his arm, the metal one. Shiro liked that about Allura, she didn't hesitate around his metal arm. She treated it just like the other one. They were good enough of friends for Allura to not be bothered by his prosthetic

He realized that he was rather tensed up. He took a deep breath and forced himself to relax. "You're right," he told Allura, not meeting her eyes. "I really want to find Matt and having my brother chained up really doesn't help," he said dryly. "But there's also the added fact that I'm learning more about Matt and it's hard to keep the old person in your head when you read their inner thoughts and reactions."

Allura nodded, "Yeah, I get that. I wouldn't want other people to know half the things I think in my head. That would be horrible."

"Yeah," Shiro agreed.

"Well, did you at least find any clues?" Allura said, taking a step closer to him and reaching out for the journal. Shiro handed it to her so she could flip through the pages while they waited.

"Don't hate me for this," Shiro started, his statement met with a scowl from Allura, "but I think this helps to clear Keith's name. Matt talks about Keith quite a few times because they would hang out sometimes and Pidge would too. After Keith left the team, Matt hardly saw Keith and wanted to see him again. I did see a mention," Shiro grabbed the journal back and flipped towards one of the last filled in pages, "Ah, here, I found it.

" _Those men are following me. I don't know why or what they want but I'm going to stay in crowded areas for now. I know I can't talk to them._

 _I should probably tell Pidge but I don't want them to be worried over nothing._

 _I spotted three different men today though. They were all different but still similar enough to look cohesive. I couldn't see their faces either. They were all wearing these huge safari type hats that really stood out in the crowd._

 _I hope that they're not here for me."_

"So we should see if Keith knows of a group of three or if he recognizes safari hats," Allura said.

"Yeah. When you searched his apartment yesterday, did you find any hats?"

"No," Allura said slowly, "But I can go check again while you stay here and work with the journal more."

Shiro glanced at the clock. He wanted the whole team to leave as soon as they got there, but he also wanted to prove Keith's innocence.

"Okay," he said, a little reluctantly, "but you can't mess up his stuff too much."

Allura nodded and said "Alright, Chief, you've got it."

* * *

Keith~

Keith hated it.

He hated sitting next to Lance in the car. He hated listening to his quiet breaths that could be heard in the silence as they drove with none of them talking. He hated the chain that bound him and Lance together. He hated the side glances that Hunk kept giving them.

He hated the way he had woken up with Lance in his arms. He hated the way he had woken up _before_ Lance and had laid there for a minute, shocked by Lance holding him. Without thinking about it, Keith had wrapped his arms around Lance and he remembered feeling Lance's warm, smooth skin under his fingertips.

He had been tired and it was early in the morning, alright? He hadn't been thinking. If he had been, then he would have punched Lance in his stupid face.

He hated the way that Lance had _blushed_ when he realized what he was doing. Keith was pretty sure his own face had been red as well. But, _damn_ , Keith had to admit that Lance was pretty cute with bed-head while blushing. Not that it mattered because Lance was an idiot and didn't need to take up any more of Keith's brain room than an obnoxious fly.

He hated watching him try to pull his shirt on, where Keith could see his chest stretched and opened with his arms over his head. Keith had reached to help Lance put his shirt on (because it was honestly so pathetic to watch) but had refrained because that was _way_ too intimate.

He hated the way his senses were all too aware of how close he was to Lance. He knew that Lance's breath smelled like mint toothpaste, he hated that he could see a couple of drops of water still dangling in Lance's hair, and he especially hated how he could see his eyelashes fluttering as he blinked at the outside world all while biting his lip.

Fine, his face was sort of pleasing to look at. Just as soon as he opened his mouth, Keith was ready to _actually_ commit a murder.

It was a relief when Hunk finally pulled into a parking spot and Keith was able to get out and step a foot away from Lance.

They walked into the BAU office building without even making eye-contact.

Shiro and Pidge were already there, though Coran and Allura were missing. Shiro and Pidge seemed to be having a deep conversation while flipping through the journal that they had found.

Pidge spotted them first and immediately stood and marched over to Hunk. "Hello. What the fuck took you guys forever? I took the bus and beat you here." their voice was dry as though they didn't especially care unless it was something interesting.

Hunk smiled mischievously, "Oh, Lance and Keith were just getting better acquainted after their night."

Pidge immediately started grinning, "Really? Do tell."

Even Shiro was quiet in anticipation. Keith wanted to interrupt but that would be even more suspicious. He knew how to deal with Pidge. He had to pretend it was no big deal and just deny them nonchalantly.

Though… that tactic rarely worked for Keith. He got angered too easily.

"Weeeellllll," Hunk said slowly, "I was all ready to go and I walked in to see if they were ready to go. And they were sitting together in Lance's bed."

"Really? Already?" Pidge said, grinning like a maniac. "I mean, I expected as much but maybe after a couple of weeks..."

"Yeah, me too," Hunk said.

Pidge turned to Keith and Lance, "So you two are already getting together?"

"Yeah, right," Lance scoffed. "Like we would ever do that. I hate this guy." Keith looked at him and noticed that his cheeks and ears were bright pink. But so would anyone's be if their friends were insinuating that they had….

"HA!" Pidge laughed, "Of course you wouldn't," they said sarcastically. "Hunk, did you get photographic evidence?"

"Sadly, no."

Pidge turned to him shaking their head, "You are a disgrace to me. A failure. Just leave."

"Okay guys," Shiro said, standing up. "I think it is time that we got back to the case at hand."

Pidge scowled but relented, "Fine, but we are coming back to this later."

"Lance," Shiro said.

"Yep. Right here. What do you need, Chief?" Keith wondered how he could sound so upbeat and happy after being severely embarrassed by Pidge. Keith was no stranger to Pidge's teasing, with how many times he had dealt with it, but the effects usually lasted him a couple of hours before he was normal.

"I need to talk to Keith so I'm going to unchain you for a bit, and then put you back together. If you have a change of cloths or you want to take a quick shower or something, now would be the time."

Pidge snorted, "Lance can't take a short shower to save his life."

"I can too!" Lance protested.

"Ha!" Hunk said. "I'm pretty sure the shortest shower you have ever taken was fifteen minutes and that's because the water was cut off before you were finished."

Lance scowled at him.

"Okay," Shiro said, stepping up and unlocking the handcuffs from Lance's wrist. "Keith and I are heading out."

Shiro lead Keith away from the group, still bickering, and went into the interrogation room that Keith had spent most of yesterday in. Keith couldn't help but laugh when they entered to find a disarray of pillows and blankets throughout the room.

Shiro sighed, throwing a pillow off of his chair and sitting down. Keith wondered why the other handcuff, Lance's side, wasn't being attached to anything, but Shiro just left it on the table as though he were daring Keith to try to run.

"So, what did you find?" Keith asked, sitting down.

"Can you tell me all that you can about Matt?" Shiro asked.

"You know him as well as I do. You were the one who worked more closely with him and knew him before I did," Keith said, shrugging.

"It's true that I knew him for longer," Shiro said, "but this journal leads me to believe you know something I don't. And I'm not saying it's a bad thing, I just want to know."

Keith's mind flashed to all of the times Matt would talk about Shiro and smile at him behind his back. He couldn't reveal Matt's secrets any more than Keith would reveal his own.

"Those are Matt's secrets to tell."

"Keith, could they help with the mission?"

 _Unless you count his loyalty to you? No._ Keith thought.

"Not really," he said shrugging.

Shiro sighed, "Okay. Okay. I get it. But…" he pulled out the journal, "I've been reading this and he talks about liking one of our group members and I _really_ want to know who." Shiro looked up at Keith with those stupid puppy eyes. God, how was he so annoying? "Can you please tell me?"

"Nope," Keith said. It was amusing to watch Shiro flounder.

" _Keith…_ " Shiro sighed, "can I pull older brother superiority?"

"Nope," Keith said again. "I could just pull annoying younger brother. Plus, I still have to get back at you for those stories you told about me."

"Touché," Shiro said. "I suppose I will move onto the next thing. I noticed in his journal he talked about three people following him. Can you think of who those people could be?"

Keith noticed the immediate shift. Shiro was interviewing him as a suspect instead of playing with him as his brother. Sure he could have information, but Shiro was more gauging Keith's reaction. Thankfully, Keith didn't know who, specifically, could have been following Matt. Keith shook his head and focused on keeping his expression naturally calm.

"What about someone in a safari hat?" Shiro asked, his eyebrows raised.

Keith frowned like he didn't have any information and shook his head again. "Sorry, Shiro. I don't know anything."

Shiro stared at him for a moment as though gauging Keith's genuinity. He nodded, "Okay, I believe you. Now, do you know any of Matt's coworkers?"

* * *

Lance~

"For the _last time_ , Pidge," Lance snarled, "We. Were. Doing. Nothing. The chain wasn't long enough to reach the floor so Keith came to lay next to me. That's all. And it's not like I have some tiny bed, I have a full size so we were fine."

Pidge rolled their eyes, "Yeah, yeah. Nothing may have happened yet but just you wait."

"I do _NOT_ like that stupid mullet-head!" Lance cried indignantly.

"Really?" Hunk said, sounding genuinely shocked.

"Ditto, Hunk," Pidge said. "I figured you had this huge-ass crush on him after you ' _admired'_ his work back in school."

"A: he was pulled out early," Lance said, "B: I am 87% sure that I never said that I 'admired his work' —"

"Just last week," Hunk supplied. "You said it a week ago."

"I did not!" Lance protested.

"I believe Hunk," Pidge said.

"Fuck you," Lance muttered. "I do. _N-O-T._ Care for…" Lance paused to fake a shudder, " _him._ "

Hunk raised his hands in defense. "Fine. Whatever you say."

"I'll believe it when I see you look at Keith without turning fucking scarlet in the face," Pidge smirked at him.

"I can and will strangle you," Lance glared at them.

"If you could ever catch me," Pidge said, ducking behind Hunk as Lance lunged for them.

"Shouldn't you be working on the case?" Coran said as he walked through the door and was putting his stuff down.

"We are," Pidge said manipulatively.

"Okay. Then, what have you found?" Coran sat down in a chair near to them, effectively shutting down the three friends' banter. Lance didn't really want to get started on the case again. He was proud of having found the journal and he wanted to find Matt, but he also didn't want the stupid _constant_ fear that Matt was hurt and he couldn't do more. Even though he didn't personally know Matt, if something were to happen to him, it would devastate the team. Lance much prefered lightening the mood with his friends to facing the idea that Matt could be… could be…. No. It was too horrible.

 _He is okay._ Lance told himself defiantly. He refused to believe otherwise.

"Shiro found something about three people with safari hats following Matt a couple of months before… he left," Pidge said, jumping out from behind Hunk to pace around the room. "Allura went to go search Keith's apartment to see if she could find any safari hats. Otherwise, our plan is to go to Matt's office and interrogate his coworkers to see if they know anything. Well, I might stay here and track my brother if I can't be of any use at his office."

Coran nodded, "Well, I'm glad we have that together. It's always good to have a set plan. One time—"

"Coraaaan," Hunk moaned.

At the same time Pidge shouted, "Coran! We decided that there would be no more of your fucking nonsensical stories! We. Don't. Like. Them."

"And we've heard _all_ of your stories before," Hunk added.

Lance almost added that he had in fact, not heard all of the stories, but he had heard enough _about_ the stories to know to keep his mouth shut.

Pidge turned sharply to face the group, "Alrighty, tell me when you guys leave; I'm going to go try to track Matt or search up safari hat guys."

"So scientific sounding," Hunk laughed.

"You try doing my job," Pidge smirked. "I could find the skeletons in your closet that even _you_ didn't know were there."

"I don't care how good you are at hacking; I'm still mad at you two," Lance said. "You had better watch yourselves for retaliation."

"Good luck," Pidge said in a sing-song voice as they left down the hallway.

"You should go shower though, dude," Hunk said. "There is one downstairs. That is… unless you want to wait for Keith."

"Ugh. No,!" Lance cried. "A: Ew. No. I do _not_ like Keith. B: Why is there a shower downstairs? And C: _shut up._ Keith doesn't know I'm bi and get crushes easily and I plan to keep it that way so, _shut your mouth._ "

Hunk raised his hands in surrender, "Alright. Chill, dude. I'll stop teasing you. There is a shower downstairs because the task members would often stay the night and then would want to freshen up a bit."

"Makes sense," Lance nodded as he turned to head downstairs. "Oh, and I am not joking about retaliation."

Lance smiled as he headed downstairs to go wash off.

* * *

Shiro~

Shiro was glad to talk to Keith, even if he wasn't the most open of people and even though it was technically an interview so Shiro could gauge Keith's reactions.

A couple of weeks before, they had finally met for coffee after months of not talking. Keith had severed his ties with the rest of the team long before he had severed his ties with Shiro. Though, Shiro thought that was because Keith had wanted to make sure he was okay.

Even Keith had known that it would have been too hard to lose both his brother and his arm at the same time.

Still, Keith had left because the memories were too painful.

Shiro was almost grateful that he had suffered the bulk of the physical pain because it meant that he didn't have to suffer as much mental trauma as the others. He remembered Matt and Keith barely able to function for a time after the case. He remembered them secluding themselves from the rest of the group. He remembered Pidge dropping their sarcasm, their voice becoming soft and gentle for a time because they didn't have the strength to laugh. He remembered when Hunk had stopped baking because he couldn't make anything he thought was good. He remembered when Hunk had started wearing the cloth around his forehead to hide the scar that was underneath. Hunk claimed it was so he didn't have to remember the pain every day but Shiro thought that there wasn't a day that went by without all of them thinking about that case.

Unlike Hunk, Shiro had decided to submit to his trauma. He let his white bangs grow long, despite Keith and Pidge calling him an oreo. He didn't use makeup to try to hide the scar on his nose. He didn't hide his prosthetic arm, either. He saw no point to.

Shiro hardly remembered what had happened. Most of it had been a pain-filled blur and the story he knew, was more like what he had been told than what he actually remembered.

The hardest thing had been watching Keith and Matt, his brother and his friend, suffer through so much mental pain. And then, watching them leave the group because all of them were too broken to be a steady anchor in their emotional oceans.

He hadn't talked to Keith after he left because he kept telling himself that he was giving Keith time to heal. In truth, Shiro had needed time to heal before he felt like he could be stable enough to talk to Keith.

Now, he had to talk to Keith like he was a suspect and Shiro hated that. He wanted to comfort Keith and he wanted to be able to talk about pleasant things, not the death of more and more innocent people.

As they talked, Keith was slowly growing more relaxed, Shiro could tell, and he was glad he was. Shiro had missed talking to his brother.

Keith didn't know much about the other coworkers but he did know a bit.

"Matt works on the 11th floor, I believe," he said. "He works mainly with a team of eight other people. I can't remember their names for the life of me, but I don't think any of them seemed serial-killer-esque."

"Could you tell me any of their personalities?" Shiro asked.

Keith shook his head, his shaggy hair swished across his shoulders and forehead as he did. "No, Matt and I have scarcely talked since we left the group. We maybe would meet at the market or something but I haven't really seen him much."

Shiro noticed the sad light in Keith's eyes. He knew that Keith had always had trouble socializing with others. Shiro had been happy when Matt suggested that Keith join the team because it would give Keith a larger family and friends. He had grown so much in his years at the BAU, Shiro was disappointed that he had secluded himself again.

"That's okay," Shiro said. "I think we should go talk to them today and see if they know anything. Otherwise, the only clues we might have would come from either Pidge's tech or this journal."

Keith nodded solemnly. "Yeah, I think the best thing to do is to go to Matt's work and see if we can't root out another clue." Keith paused, "I'm allowed to come, right?"

"I'm pretty sure it would be better to leave you because of the whole suspect thing, but I don't really care. You are probably our best detective and I want you to talk to these coworkers so you're coming."

Keith smiled. It was faint, but Shiro _knew_ he saw the edges of Keith's mouth twist up, and it made him smile as well.

"You know," Shiro said softly, "you could rejoin this team. I can recommend you and the others would all be happy to have you."

"Shiro," Keith said, his voice pained and his smile gone, "you know why I left."

"And you know why I stayed," Shiro countered.

Keith closed his eyes. "Everywhere I look, I see that day. I see those pictures. I…" his voice cracked, "I can't see that every day."

"But maybe, having us around, having your friends and family around, will help those memories to fade away," Shiro said earnestly.

Keith opened his mouth like he was about to argue, but Shiro cut him off, "You think that I don't still wake up in a cold sweat thinking about that day?" Shiro chuckled. "Not at all. I constantly have nightmares. But seeing Hunk and Pidge smiling and laughing and joking, really helps. And… seeing _you_ laughing and joking helps more than anything." Shiro smiled warmly. "I don't need an answer now, but… maybe think about it?"

"You really do believe I'm innocent," Keith commented.

"Of course. Should I not?" Shiro smiled jokingly despite the pang of nervousness he felt.

"I didn't commit those murders, but I fear the group who did might be after me."

"Let's see how we catch them. Let's find Matt, and then you can decide."

Keith nodded. "Okay."

"Now," Shiro said, "Let's go get the others and chain you back up."

"Ugh," Keith groaned. "Lance is insufferable."

Shiro smirked, "It'll only get worse from here on out."

"That's what I'm dreading."

Shiro laughed, and it felt good to laugh with Keith. "Come on, I know it isn't that bad. Lance is growing on you."

"Lance… isn't as weird and obnoxious as he was yesterday."

Did Keith hesitate?

Shiro couldn't help laughing internally. He really did hope that Keith would open up to Lance. He needed someone new and different in his life. And Shiro thought that just maybe, Lance would be able to draw some excitement and ambition out of Keith.

"Alright," Shiro said, "Let's go find the group and then head out."

"Can we get breakfast on the way?" Keith asked. "Lance and I kind of forgot to eat."

"Of course," Shiro said, leaving the room with Keith by his side.

* * *

So, what did you think? The next chapter will be a lot of the interviewing and really trying to find clues on the case.

Thank you so much for reading and being patient with me!


	3. Winding Knowledge

Note: Hello to the broken Voltron fandom!

So.

Season seven happened and let me just say a couple things to start.

I am definintely going with Shatt (I'm sorry. Adam won't be in this story. Maybe I'll mention him as a past love but... it will be Shatt). I switched some of the stuff in this chapter to make Shiro 100% gay.

Though this may not fit with the other chapters, Lance knows that Shiro is gay and so does the rest of the team (Well, Allura and Coran don't). Yes I will have a bi arc part but it won't come for a while.

Next, I know this may go against some of my earlier statements in chapters, but Shiro doesn't have a thing for Allura. Allura subtly likes him but that'll be disbanded soon. Honestly, I never really shipped Shallura, I just put it in my fic because I want Shiro to be happy and having support I think would help him.

There will be no Allurance in this fic. Klance is very much a slowburn. The case they are doing now is not the end of the story.

Thanks to everyone who commented on which ship to do!

And finally, this chapter focuses pretty heavily on plot and has more of Keith/ Lance becoming friends than it does ship-ish stuff. Yes that is coming and Yes they will have to talk about the previous night.

I'm also just kind of tired of editing this chapter so I'm posting it. I'm sorry if it isn't as good. Please tell me in a comment if there are any errors or conflicting plotlines. I'll try to fix them as best as I can. This is my first mystery story so I'm kind of winging it.

Thank you for reading and enjoy! :)

(Bit of a violent trigger warning at the end. Just some blood stuff. But it's only described briefly and at the very end of the fic when Keith is talking.)

* * *

Lance~

It was weird being chained back to Keith.

They had stopped to get breakfast at McDonalds which Keith and Pidge had insisted on for some _unknown_ reason. Shiro had decided that they could all pile into his van. Allura (who had gotten back just before the group had left) and Shiro took the front two seats, Pidge, the little gremlin who had decided to join them at the last moment, had claimed one of the middle two seats along with Coran who was a lot pushier than Lance had given him credit for. Finally, he and Keith and Hunk sat squashed together in the rear seats. Lance didn't know why Pidge was coming after they had said that they would stay behind, but apparently Shiro had suggested that they could hack into Matt's computer and see if they could find anything.

Lance also didn't know why he was _so_ aware of Keith's arm touching his own. It shouldn't have mattered. No, it _didn't_ matter.

Ugh. He hated Keith.

Yes, 'hate'.

Keith's know-it-all smugness about his, albeit impressive, detective abilities, just set Lance on edge. He wanted to one-up Keith. He wanted to be better than him. He wanted to be able to not think about being a detective and just be able to do it and everyone would trust that he would be right.

Lance had grown up hearing about the great Keith Kogane, yet the reality of it was so different than the stories. In the stories they told in class, he was a tall man (not true) who hid in the shadows like Batman and always seemed to appear with the right answers in his hands.

Instead, Lance was next to an introverted, quirky, and awkward young adult who was fumbling around with life just as much as Lance was.

UGH! Lance _hated_ his own thoughts. It was time they went away. He was tired of hearing Shiro and Allura talk to each other in hushed tones. He couldn't hear Pidge's snide comments well enough to keep himself entertained, and Keith and Hunk weren't bothering to talk.

"So," Lance said loudly, "Anyone have any stories we could tell?"

Pidge was the first to whip their head around, "Fuck yeah! Pick a category."

Lance thought for a moment pretending that he was in great distress thinking about a category. "Let's do embarrassing teenage moments."

Suddenly, Keith was gripping his arm and it was doing weird things to his mind. He did not like it. "Do _not_ let them tell those stories."

"Well, now I want to know even more!" Lance made no attempt to pull his arm away.

"As long as you or _someone_ here can tell me _your_ teenage stories." Keith was glaring at him like he really meant it.

Lance gulped, "I'm afraid of the consequences so I'm just going to cut to the chase and say yes. I will tell some stories. But I don't have anything embarrassing. I've always been this awesome."

"Hunk?" Pidge asked, almost screaming the poor man's name. "You pick who I mock first."

"Oreo dad," Hunk said without hesitation.

"Okay. Sweet. I have a billion of those stories."

"No," Shiro called from the front. "Don't you dare."

"FYI," Pidge said, turning to look at Shiro, "I wasn't going to do _that_ story. I was going to do the other one."

"That does not make me feel any better."

"Shiro," Keith interjected, "If I have to suffer so do you. I'm sure they'll tell equally mortifying ones of me. Plus, we can retaliate with that one story that Matt told us that he said if we ever repeated, we would wind up in hell having been shredded by a furious Pidgeon."

"Keith, that literally consoles me in zero ways."

"Oh, come on," Allura said brightly, "I would like to hear Shiro teen stories."

"Me too," Coran added.

"I swear it cannot be worse than that night we got Shiro drunk," Hunk muttered.

"Oh yeah!" Pidge laughed, "That is a _great_ story!"

"It. Did. Not. Happen." Shiro said defiantly.

"Look buddy," Keith said, the hint of a smile ghosting past his lips, "It's your word against, Pidge, Hunk, Matt, and I. I think you lose."

"I for one," Lance said, finally chiming in, "Desperately need to hear this story."

"Okay, okay," Pidge smirked. "So we were at this party at Matt and my's place after a particularly rough case. We had gotten some alcohol and we had Shiro drinking some. Well, we were called into a last-minute case and we didn't realize how poorly Shiro can hold his alcohol so we just went to the case. Shiro got slap-happy drunk. To start, Shiro was flirting like he was Lance with the police chief. Second, he found a tree and yelled, 'Stop you fiend!' and then he stared at a brick wall for a solid two minutes before we pulled him away because he was being insane. Hunk," Pidge turned addressing Hunk. "You took Shiro home. Did anything eventful happen?"

"Hmm…" Hunk thought. "I remember he kept waving at green lights and then shouting every sign without falter. It was pretty funny to hear him say 'HOSPITAL: TWO MILES TO EXIT!' like it was world breaking news."

Lance had started laughing when Pidge had mentioned Shiro being drunk but at Hunk's slightly slurred interpretation of what Shiro sounded like, had Lance guffawing with laughter. He _really_ wanted to see Shiro drunk.

"Yes, okay," Shiro muttered grumpily, "I get it. I get drunk. Now, can we move on to a different person?"

"Oh, come on Dad!" Lance said though his laughter. "We didn't get a teenage story!"

"No," Shiro said.

"Pleeeease!" Allura whined and Lance could just tell from her voice that she was using puppy dog eyes on him.

"No," Shiro restated but there was a slight waver. Keith picked up on his hesitation and took advantage of it. "Come on Shiro, don't you want to recount that one boy you tried to ask out in ninth grade."

"YEAH! That was hilarious!" Pidge shouted.

"No," Shiro deadpanned.

"Fine," Keith said, "Then I'm telling it."

"Please, yes," Lance responded.

"Okay so Shiro had this crush on this one boy in his freshman year of high school. He wanted to ask him to a dance so he got him some flowers, right? Well first of all, this poor boy was allergic to these flowers so he kept sneezing in Shiro's face. Second, Shiro got all of his words mixed up and said something like 'me go out with' so he sounded like some kind of fucking Neanderthal. It was so funny to watch him flounder. The boy kindly turned him down but then, while Shiro was standing up, he tripped and fell into him, knocking him onto the floor. Okay, yeah, that's like a movie cliché, but this ended badly. He fell with his hair directly in fresh, wet, chewed gum. So Shiro cut a good chunk of his hair off." Keith started wiping his eyes of laughter tears. "It was one of the best days of my life and I am so happy that I had the opportunity to watch all of that. I only wish that I had recorded it."

Lance started laughing. He couldn't breathe. He could _way_ too easily imagine a pimply young Shiro bumbling over trying to ask a person out. And he could imagine, Keith, a few years younger, watching the whole disaster and laughing.

Lance subconsciencly grabbed Keith's shoulder to lean forward to catch his breath. He kept laughing so hard he was wheezing. He didn't know why he found the idea so funny but just imagining perfect Oreo-dad Shiro bumbling over a boy made his laugh way too hard.

But he was also shocked that Keith so openly admitted that Shiro had tried to date a boy. Lance… Lance was never that open and he didn't know how anyone could be.

Suddenly, Lance had the idea of Keith, much younger, with a mullet. He could not imagine why anyone, adopted parents or not, would let a child get a mullet.

Lance was able to stop laughing for a moment in order to sit up. He noticed Keith staring at him, his shoulder tense under Lance's grip. Lance couldn't read Keith's expression but he felt unsettled by it.

Pidge broke the tension, "Okay. Keith's story time!"

"What!?" Keith said. "No, I don't want a story about me."

"Shiro!" Pidge called. "You wanna take this one in payback against Keith?"

"Sure," Shiro called, his voice was overly cheery. Lance glanced back at Keith and couldn't help but revel in the look of sheer horror on his face.

"Dear lord, Shiro, didn't you do enough damage with the BAU stories about me?" Keith tried desperately.

"Nope," Lance chimed. "I could always hear more stories."

"I volunteer Lance to go next," Keith declared.

"After you!" Lance smiled joyously.

"Fuck you," Keith whispered softly.

"Go ahead, Shiro," Pidge called.

Lance could hear Shiro sigh but it wasn't unhappy, more contented like he was savoring the moment.

"Let me see. I think one of the funniest times is when I found Keith on top of our apartment roof with pin-boards and weird tech surrounding him. He and Pidge were going through this space conspiracy phase where they kept coming up with ridiculous theories and trying to prove them. That was the time Keith was in his whole "Mothman obsession phase." At the time that I found him, Keith had shouted for me to "eff off" so that he could find his 'cool alien uncle.'"

Beside Lance, Keith huffed dramatically.

"Shiro," Keith said, "You know I was going through that weird soul-search-y phase. I wanted to know who my mom was and I wanted to know who I was. Aliens just helped because they were such an absurd and yet comforting idea that I couldn't help but be drawn to them. You can blame Pidge on the tech and conspiracy theories."

"True," Pidge said laughing as they pointed dramatically at Keith.

"WEAK!" Lance shouted. "That was a WEAK story. I need more. Hunk, Allura, you with me?"

"Sure," Hunk said supportively.

"I love gossip," Allura said.

"Okay then," Shiro said. "Since Keith told one of me making a fool out of myself, I'll return the favor."

"Shiro…" Keith said warningly.

Shiro glanced back and gave a reassuring smile to Keith. Lance couldn't help but notice the faint blush that was on Keith's face.

"I've got this, Keith. So Pidge, Matt, and I had convinced Keith to go to this pie throwing charity event. It was weird. Basically, the goal was to throw the most pies and have the least amount of pie on you. It was a lot of fun and we all got _covered_ in pie. We had finished towards the bottom because Pidge kept covering themselves with pie and then tackling Keith, Matt, and I. Well, after the place rankings were called out, _that's_ when things went downhill for Keith. Apparently, his crush was there as well and they had spotted Keith. Well, Keith's crush came up and started talking to Keith, despite the fact that Keith was mortified. Then, just to mess with Keith, Pidge found a pie that had been left behind and lobbed it at the back of his head so that Keith stumbled forward into his crush's arms. I have never seen Keith turn a brighter shade of red or scramble away so quickly."

"And the spluttering!" Pidge shouted. "I was on the floor laughing so hard. Keith's crush looked so confused as he tried to figure out what was going on."

" _Pidge_ ," Keith said sharply.

Lance wondered if he had misheard something or if Pidge had really said 'he' when referring to Keith's crush. Not that it mattered. It wasn't like Lance had the brief thought about being a bisexual boy himself. He didn't like having something in common with Keith. He wanted to be as different from mullet-head as he could be.

And Shiro… being potentially gay? Lance wanted to talk to him about that but he couldn't. Not with Keith chained to his wrist.

Still, the story was hilarious and Keith's blush combined with his scowl was far too funny for Lance to not tease him about.

"Aww, Mullet head failed with his crush! Do you need a hug maybe ice cream or a pony?"

"Shut up, Lance," Keith growled. "How about we hear a story about you?"

"Hunk?" Lance asked, "You want to tell this one for the group?"

Lance knew that Hunk would be one of the only people to know any stories about Lance's past and he figured that Hunk was too much of a cinnamon roll to do anything drastic.

"When Lance was fifteen, he got two strips of his hair shaved off and then the hair around it dyed blue. He called it his racing strip."

Instantly the car was quiet. Lance wasn't laughing anymore. Keith and Pidge were snickering into their hands.

"H _unnnk_!" Lance put a hand to his chest in indignation. "I told you to never tell anyone about that! What the fuuuck. You _betray_ me!"

"Of course," Hunk said. "As I said earlier, the Pidgeon terrifies me."

Pidge snorted. "Good. Then I've done my job well done."

"Do you, by chance, have photographic evidence?" Keith asked Hunk.

Lance attempted to subtly sit on his phone. Pidge noticed.

"AHA!" Pidge somehow managed to grab Lance's phone in half a second despite being far away in seating and Lance trying to hide it. In hindsight, Lance remembered that Keith had grabbed his arms so Pidge could grab the phone. It had made Lance pause for half of a second giving Pidge just enough time to win.

"Good luck with the passcode," Lance growled.

"And… There!" Pidge called out. "I hacked your passcode."

"What—What the fuck Pidge?" Lance shouted indignantly, "How? How the fuck did you figure it out so quickly?"

"I just tried your sibling's birthdays in various orders," they said nonchalantly. "And now to go to photos…"

Pidge was silent as they scrolled through Lance's camera roll, which, thankfully, was mostly of his family and random shit he hadn't bothered to delete yet.

Lance sulked dramatically throwing his arm over his head. "Oh, woe is me. Thou shall displayth my darkest secrets to the world!"

"Calm down, Lance," Keith grumbled. "We have to savor this chance to make fun of you."

"I FOUND IT!" Pidge roared triumphantly.

They turned the phone around to show a picture of Lance with his shaved and blue streaks making a finger gun to someone off camera with his right eye closed in a wink. It actually wasn't a horrible picture, he was happily surprised to find.

"Aww, you looked so adorable!" Hunk called.

"You have a pimple on your nose," Keith commented.

"Well, that _was_ before I had my amazing skin care routine to uphold my perfect completion."

Keith looked to Hunk for confirmation. "It's true. He has like 25 skin care products he applies daily. And he usually wears a face-mask at night."

"Are you kidding me?" Keith said.

"Nope," Hunk replied. "I'm not."

"And there!" Pidge said again. "I sent the picture to the rest of us in a group chat."

"That's nice, Pidge," Shiro said from the front.

"What?!" Lance responded, "No it isn't!"

"But give Lance back his phone," Shiro continued. "We're here."

* * *

Keith~

Finally. A chance to prove his skill.

For one, he didn't know why he wanted to compete with and one-up Lance so badly but he did. He and Lance were not helpful together, but they were working better than they had at their first meeting which Keith was doing his best to forget. If he and Lance actually worked together, they could probably do really well; however, they spent their time arguing instead and got nothing of productive value done.

Keith also didn't know why, but it really irked him that Lance had found Matt's journal. He had wanted to be the one to find something.

At least no one was treating him like a criminal. They had this unspoken agreement that they would find Matt first, because they had to hope that the murders and his kidnapping were connected. At least, no one else had yet died.

Three murders and a kidnapping. They barely had any kind of profile to go on. They had no idea how they could find Matt. They were grasping at straws.

Lance and Keith shuffled out of the van as they arrived.

Keith still wished he could be chained to Shiro or Pidge or Hunk, but he understood that they couldn't trust him with his friends and family.

Lance dragged Keith behind him obnoxiously as he dashed over towards Shiro.

"Okay," Shiro said once they had all gathered. "So the plan is to go in as a group and we are going to talk to the manager first. I'll ask to interview some people including him, and then we'll start interviewing. I want Keith and Lance to double-team interviews. I'll be interviewing too. I want Coran and Allura to be watching the interactions of the various members. And I want Pidge to hack into Matt's computer. Hunk, I want you to probe some people in a group setting. Don't necessarily bring up Matt but see if you can either find clues or probe for information. Now, if someone asks about Keith, we are going to say that he is an officer in training and that this is a way for us to be able to analyze how productive Keith is. Everyone clear?"

Everyone nodded or saluted in affirmation.

"Alright, then let's go in."

Keith had never been to Matt's work but he had heard about it once. It was a big building where everyone sat at a desk with a computer working on programing and finding information on people. No one really talked to each other, but they had all customized their desks a little to remind them of home.

They had to take the elevator up in two groups. Lance, Keith, Shiro, in one group. The other four on the next elevator ride.

"Lance," Shiro said, "I want Keith to lead in the interview but I want you to pipe up if you think of anything relevant. Remember, trust in Keith's skills. He's really good at profiling." The shadow of a smile passed Shiro's lips, "as you found out yesterday."

"Yeah, yeah," Lance replied. "At least I'll finally get to witness these detective skills I've heard so much about and yet haven't gotten to see. Because who found the journal? I did." His tone was teasing but not condescending. Lance then added a quirky smirk and winked at Keith and Shiro.

Keith rolled his eyes, _Honestly. How is he_ so _annoying?_

Keith also couldn't explain why, but he felt like he had to prove himself to Lance. Like he needed to prove that he was better, or at least good enough to assist the investigation.

"And Lance," Shiro added, "If anyone acts like they need to see FBI credentials, step up and show them because Keith won't be able to."

Lance nodded, subdued for once.

The elevator door binged as it opened onto the eleventh floor—Matt's floor.

Shiro took the lead with Keith following behind, dragging Lace behind him. Shiro went to the manager's office and stepped inside. As he used to, Keith waited outside the room, holding Lance back as well.

"Shouldn't we follow him in?" Lance asked.

Keith had leaned against the wall with his arms folded across his chest and one leg propped up on the wall behind him.

"No," Keith said dully. "It's better to let Shiro explain what we are here for before the manager gets intimidated by a large group. You can already see some of the workers getting agitated." He gestured to a girl with curly ringlets of hair who kept glancing at them.

"Point taken," Lance said, draping himself against the wall to the right of Keith.

Keith couldn't help but notice that Lance was in a mirror position of his own. He wondered if Lance had done that purposefully or if he had done it subconsciously.

After an eternity of awkward silences, the rest of the group came up and found Lance and Keith. They were all quiet, probably intimidated by the quiet of the work room with only the clicking of keyboards to fill the empty yet oppressive sound of silence.

 _Finally_ , Shiro emerged with a slight smile. "The manager, Carl, said that he would be happy to let us probe around. He kept talking about how good a worker Matt was and how he was surprised that he wasn't there the other day. I'll go ahead and interview him. He suggested that we start with that guy Rolo, over there."

Keith nodded. "Okay, we'll get on that."

He and Lance turned away and started walking towards the man Shiro had gestured towards. He had longer dyed white hair and a tan complexion like he was a surfer. His shoulders were relaxed and as Keith got closer, he took notice of his downturned puppy eyes.

"Hello," Lance said, always the social one, "Your name is Rolo right?"

"Yeah?" The man said looking them up and down. "Is everything okay?"

"Well," Lance said, "we were hoping we could give a quick interview."

"I suppose I can't turn this down?" Rolo asked.

Lance pulled out the FBI credentials and smiled apologetically.

"Is there a room we could use for a more private interview?" Keith asked.

"Yeah," Rolo said nonchalantly, standing up and pushing his chair behind him. "This way."

Keith didn't like the guy's casual attitude. No one should be that calm when faced with the FBI. Everyone had secrets that they feared getting out. This guy's attitude meant that he was good with hiding his emotions and he would be harder to read in an interview. Keith didn't like that.

He let Rolo lead the way and pulled Lance's chain as he let Rolo get a little ahead of them. "Lance," Keith hissed into the other's ear. "Don't be drawn in by his casual and friendly attitude. He's a professional and faking his emotions and not letting people onto what he's really feeling."

Lance nodded. Keith couldn't help but wonder if Lance had a little bit of respect in his eyes as he started moving after Rolo.

Rolo presented them with a room that was large with a conference table and a couple of side tables and laptops along the edge.

He walked in, still relaxed, and sat down at one side of the table, his hands laced behind his head and his feet crossed and propped on the chair to his right. Keith opted to stay standing despite Lance's desires to sit.

"Okay, Rolo," Keith started. He knew that he had to do well in this interview and that he had to prove that he should be there. "What do you do here at Garrison Tech?" He tried to keep the agitation out of his voice in order to make Rolo open up more.

"I work as the safety check person. I try to test to see how easily someone could hack our stuff and I check to see how buggy it is," he shrugged. "It's no big deal, really."

 _Downplays his role in society. So he's not egotistical._

"Has there been any changes to the team in the last few months?"

Rolo shook his head. "No, our teams pretty solid. We've been like this for about six months without much change."

"Is your pay steady?" A good place to start to see if there were any triggering factors recently in his life.

"Yeah!" Rolo said with an aloof smile. "I got a raise two weeks ago. That was sweet."

Keith glanced the Lance. He was happy that this interview was going well so far but there was no reason to suspect Rolo… yet. He just had to make sure Lance didn't say anything to throw him off.

"Has anything changed in your family life lately?" Lance asked, because _of course_ he couldn't keep his damn mouth shut for a little while longer.

Rolo's smile instantly turned into a frown but he was able to shake it off and return to a casual, yet forced, smile. "No, not much has changed."

A lie. Maybe there _was_ reason to suspect Rolo.

"Okay," Keith said, glaring daggers at Lance for a brief moment. "Have you noticed anyone acting differently or can you think of anyone, in your group, who just went through something major?"

Rolo's gaze became distant and cold. "Nyma. My friend Nyma just lost her house in a fire. I've been caring for her for the past two weeks."

 _Well,_ that's _something,_ Keith thought.

"Could you tell us anything about your newest member?" Keith asked, hoping he was right and that Matt was the newest addition. It would be an easier way to ask about Matt than to mention him directly.

"Matt?" Rolo said. "Yeah, Matt's a little odd. He's crazy good with computers but he's pretty quiet and he generally keeps to himself. He's a really good detective though. He can find information on any website or person that you want. It's kind of scary." Suddenly, Rolo sat up, put his feet on the ground, and leaned forward with his eyes narrowed. His tone changed completely, becoming hostile and closed in. "Is there a reason that I was called in? Or are you accusing me of something?"

Before Keith could answer, Lance started talking.

"Well, you know the murders of recent? Yeah, someone in this building was killed so we were seeing if there was any connection. We don't specifically suspect you but your boss said that you knew people in your team so we thought you might be a good place to start."

 _Wow._ Keith was actually impressed. Lance had come up with a pretty good lie that completely took the blame off of Rolo while still subtly implying that he could be the killer. It would relax most everyone and only slightly agitate a killer, especially with the part about how he was recommended to talk about other people.

"How close are you to your team members?" Keith asked, taking back over the interview.

"Eh," Rolo said, leaning back in his chair and relaxing some, "I'm close to Nyma but otherwise we don't have all that much 'bonding' and whatnot. Mostly I just know some general info about the team."

"Would anyone strike you as suspicious?" Lance asked because he just _had_ to ruin the interview. Again. He glanced at Keith and had the _audacity_ to smirk.

"No," Rolo said though his body language and tone implied that he was closed off and would not be answering any more questions.

He hadn't reacted to Matt really anyway. He probably had secrets, maybe drugs if Keith had to guess, but nothing regarding their murders.

"Alright," Keith said, glancing at Lance to tell him to be quiet. "Then you can go ahead and go. We'll get back to you if we need any more information but I think for now we're good."

Rolo relaxed the tension in his shoulders and brushed past Keith, almost bumping his shoulder on the way out.

Keith closed the conference room door after Rolo left and turned to Lance.

"I don't really think he's a suspect," Lance said to start.

"Good. What else?"

"I suppose that he could be some petty criminal. I don't really like his connection to that girl he mentioned, Nyma. And I think he was too kind overall."

"Alright," Keith said, "Pretty good deducing skills. Next step is to tell Allura and Coran to watch for how Rolo interacts with people, especially Nyma."

Lance nodded and they walked out of the room over to where Allura and Coran were. Allura soured as they approached but Keith gave them the rundown anyway. Allura said, "Thank you Lance." Then paused before adding, "Keith."

Whatever.

Keith and Lance started walking around the desks until they found the name plate Nyma. Before them sat a girl who had two pigtails with long twisty blond hair in them.

"You're Nyma, correct?" Keith asked.

The girl turned around and Keith noticed that she had an oddly small face with too large eyes. She was wearing a tank-top and some plain jeans. "Yes?" she said in a voice that was so coated in sugar Keith was already ready to snap at her.

"We would like to take you back for a few quick questions," Keith said.

"Don't worry, Sweetness, they will be quite painless," Lance added.

Keith looked at him questioningly. _What is he doing?_

"Alright, Mr. FBI," Nyma said, smiling with enough honey in her voice to make bees puke.

She stood, brushing nonexistent hairs behind her shoulder.

Keith took the lead with Lance trailing behind to guide Nyma as they walked towards the conference room.

Lance held the door open for Nyma while she gave a small smile at him.

 _Ugh_ , Keith didn't know why but he was already ready for this interview to be over.

"Alright, Nyma," Keith said and she turned her attention away from Lance to look annoyedly at him. He didn't care. "So, we heard from Rolo that you've been staying at his place, has anything in recent changed for you?"

Nyma's frown turned downward into a pensive scowl.

Lance stepped closer to Keith and hissed, " _What are you doing? Last time you took your time. Why are you jumping the gun this time?"_

Keith was about to reply but Nyma started speaking. "A couple weeks ago I went on a weekend vacation and—" she made this high-pitched chittering sound Keith assumed to be laughter, "Silly me! I left the stove on. My house burned down so I went to stay with Rolo until my insurance can get me set up properly." Nyma grabbed a part of her hair and started twirling it. She sat with her legs crossed at the ankles like she was trying to be proper.

Keith wanted to scream, 'LIKELY STORY,' but Lance took over, "Oh, I'm so sorry! That must have been horrible!"

"It was…" Nyma muttered. She wiped at the edges of her eyes though Keith could see no tears.

"So why did you go to stay with Rolo?" Keith asked, determined to keep this interview on track.

"He and I had been friends for a while so he offered and I accepted," Nyma said vaguely.

"Are… are you two dating?" Lance asked.

 _God! LANCE! Why does it matter?_

When Keith thought about it logically, it was actually a good question but it could have been asked better.

And… Keith didn't know why it irked him to have Lance flirting. He hated the way Lance flirted with her. He probably flirted with every girl he saw. It probably bothered Keith because they were on the job and should be focusing. Probably.

"No," Nyma said in such a way that could either be taken as wistful or flirtatiously.

"So how well do you know the other members of your team?" Keith asked.

"Oh, I am pretty good friends with them. I like to talk to people when I'm on my break."

"What about the newest member, Matt?" Lance asked, raising one eyebrow and smiling in a playful way. Maybe… maybe Lance's flirtations would get them more answers…. Keith didn't like it but it might work really well.

"Oh," Nyma said, her tone souring. "Him. Yeah, he's quiet."

And that's all she said. Her tone was weird. It wasn't unkind or serial-killer-esque, but Keith could hear the disdain in her voice.

"So how does he fit with the group?" Lance asked.

"Not that well," Nyma said curtly. "If we ask him anything he closes up like a Venus Fly Trap."

"Have you noticed anything… different happening recently?" Keith asked.

"No," Nyma said tartly.

Lance smiled at her and leaned towards her on the table, his arms and legs crossed. Keith just raised his eyebrows questioningly.

"Have your pretty eyes noticed that anyone's changed in the last couple weeks?" Lance asked, smiling.

Keith was ready to gag.

Nyma smiled, "No, I haven't really noticed anything. Some people have been on edge because of the murders but that's about it. Wait, are you two here because of that? Didn't someone in the eighth-floor die?"

Keith glanced to Lance. Lance had said something about that too. He wondered if that was true.

"Yeah," Lance said, "We were trying to see if anyone might know something but we couldn't announce it to everyone so there wouldn't be a panic." Lance raised his eyebrows and grinned, "I'm betting you can keep a _great_ secret for us, can't you?"

Nyma smirked in return, "Of course I could keep a great big secret for a strong handsome guy like you."

Oh. Keith was pretty sure that he could taste his McDonald's breakfast again.

Lance was grinning ear to ear.

Keith hoped his face wasn't green.

"Well!" Keith cried loudly once he had swallowed his bile. "I think that concludes our interview! Thanks."

He had to force his voice to sound even half cheerful. He knew that he was doing the investigation a disservice by being biased, but he was really tired of Nyma. And… she seemed too cunning to be killing people in a mall. That required planned scenarios, especially to not be caught, but she just didn't seem like the kind to attack… so viciously. Keith was fairly certain that their unsub was a man.

He yanked on the chain a little to make Lance stand up from his leaned over position on the table. Nyma stood and smiled as she brushed past Lance, their arms bumping together. When she got to Keith her chocolate eyes narrowed in malice and she walked right into him with her shoulder, knocking him to the side in a very rude way. She walked out the door before Keith could say anything.

Good Riddance.

* * *

Shiro~

"Well, that was a total bust," Pidge grumbled as they threw grapes into the air and caught them in their mouth.

The team sat in the BAU office quietly, trying to decide what to do next. It was already lunch time by the time they had finished interviewing people at Matt's office and Shiro had to agree that _nothing_ had happened.

Shiro had started pacing.

Lance and Keith hadn't found anything of interest to the case though they did suspect that Rolo and Nyma were up to some shady activities despite Lance vouching for Nyma a couple of times.

Shiro was amazed that they were working together. They didn't seem… happy about it, but at least Keith was shutting up and not arguing every two minutes. Maybe he recognized how helping would help him stop being a suspect.

Shiro was also pretty sure that no one but maybe Allura and Coran still _actually_ suspected Keith and Shiro had been talking to Allura so that she would trust him more, though she still claimed that Shiro was biased.

She meant well, she really did. She just didn't want Shiro to be hurt or unprepared. But he really wished that she would trust him a _little_ bit more. Though, he supposed it was good that one person was on edge about Keith.

Pidge was grumpy because they hadn't been able to find any helpful information, _or_ any secrets on Matt's computer.

 _None_ of them had found a thing. And it bothered Shiro more than he wanted to admit. He wanted to find Matt so badly and he wanted to clear Keith's name in the process.

Matt had been his best friend for so many years. They had worked so closely together.

Shiro gripped the journal inside of his coat pocket and sighed.

"We haven't had any murders since Matt was taken," Shiro said. "I would imagine that if Matt were dead, we would know and there would be more murders because out unsub doesn't seem like the type to just quit."

"What if we told the media?" Coran suggested. "We could make a public announcement about either the malls or Matt. Or both. It might draw our unsub out and give us a bit of an advantage."

"No," Hunk said. "We don't _know_ that the two correlate. I think we should wait so we don't cause a panic of people not going to the malls. That results in an angry unsub and an angry unsub would result in Matt's—"

Hunk stopped talking but everyone's mind finished with _death._

"Have you guys gone to the malls to investigate yet?" Keith asked.

"Yeah," Pidge responded, "We did that a little while ago. Before we brought you in. But we didn't find _anything_."

"Let's work on our profile, then," Shiro said. "Maybe then we could go to the families of the victims and we could go see if they know anything about the person our profile describes."

"Alright," Lance said. "What do you have so far?"

"So far we know that he is aggressive and angry, probably out for revenge based on the targets that all knew Matt. He's going to be very organized and calm but quick to a temper. He's going to have a one-sided mind because he won't want to deviate from his usual plans."

"He probably looks like an average guy. Nothing too noticeable or people would have noticed him at the mall," Pidge commented.

"And he has to be someone Matt knew or he wouldn't have been kidnapped," Allura added. "Though, that is assuming that the two are correlated. This man may also wear a safari hat when walking around because we found mention of that in Matt's journal."

"Alright," Keith said, "Shiro, have you found anything else in this notebook?"

Shiro glanced at the journal and couldn't help his face heating up slightly. "No. Mostly he talks about hanging out with the group or with you and I."

Keith nodded, "Okay. Then could someone tell me about the people who were killed?" His gaze shifted quickly to Allura, "And I don't want to hear about how I should _know_ my own victims because aren't we favoring the idea that it was the same person? I was proved to have not kidnapped Matt because I would have had to leave my apartment, timed it so I arrived _just_ after Pidge left, and put that note on the wall before driving back and, guess what, arriving too late to be taken in by you guys."

Allura said nothing but crossed her arms over her chest. She glanced at Shiro and once again, and Shiro wanted to tell her that it was okay, that Keith really could be trusted.

"The first death was of a woman named Te-Osh. She died in the Moon Mall five days ago," Shiro said, handing Keith the profile from his bag so that he could look over it. "The second was of a woman named Olia who died in the Olkarie Mall and her death was four days ago." Shiro handed Keith her file as well. "Finally we have Xi, a male who died in the Arus Mall three days ago. Matt was taken one day ago and that's all we learned."

Shiro watched Keith thumb hrough the files.

"I don't know that Matt had any real connection to these people," Keith said, "Maybe a little but I don't think their deaths would be enough to ruin him. I think that he would have been sad and that's it. What do you think Shiro? You knew him better."

"I agree. I think that these people were just old friends of Matt's and he wouldn't have felt that close of an attachment," Shiro said. "The most disturbing thing was that the victimology seemed to change when Xi, an older male, died instead of the early thirties women that the unsub had been killing."

"You're right," Hunk said. "That's what makes this seem more like a revenge story and less like a random serial killer."

"So, what's the endgame?" Lance asked. "What does this big bad dude want?"

Shiro could remember that one time they had been captured. He could remember it so vividly he relieved it every time he went to sleep.

"I know that we never caught the guy who captured us," Shiro said slowly. "He left us for dead and we escaped. Because of Keith and Matt of course."

"Shiro," Keith said warningly.

Shiro wanted to tell Lance, Allura, and Coran, but for all the trauma he had gone through, he didn't remember most of it. Keith did. He remembered every painstaking moment that Shiro and Hunk had been captured leaving only Pidge and Keith and Matt to find them.

Shiro nodded, deciding to let Keith tell them on their own time.

"What if the unsub was after Keith next?" Hunk postulated. "If he got Matt and some of the people Matt knew, it could have been like a warning that he was going to take all of Matt's friends and then Matt and Keith. If it is the same unsub, then he might have wanted to finish capturing all of us like he had before."

Shiro noticed how Keith had kind of gone pale and how his expression had turned to stone. Hunk had also started rubbing his forehead under the cloth around his head.

"Good think he can't get me without taking Lance as well," Keith muttered.

Shiro thought about how he was planning on leaving Keith at the BAU that night. Maybe he could stay with Keith? He didn't want Keith to be captured…

"Lance," Shiro said quietly, "I have a request for you."

* * *

Lance~

Of course.

Why the fuck did he think things would work out?

When Shiro had asked him if he would be willing to be chained to Keith for another few nights, Lance said yes because how could he disappoint Shiro? He looks up to Shiro. Shiro was the most collected and put together.

But… _Keith._

Lance… he hates the guy. He used to admire the work he did but now he just didn't know. He was phenomenal at interrogating the people earlier but he was so hot headed and impulsive and so… _human._

Shiro still seemed like his prosthetic arm gave him superhuman detective abilities and leader abilities. But Keith made mistakes. He wasn't amazing and perfect, despite being _really_ good.. And… Lance wanted to see how far he could push him.

Like earlier when they had been interviewing and both working together and competing at the same time.

Dang. That girl Nyma was, _hot._ Lance had wanted to pull out all of his flirting tricks but he had also wanted to interrogate her. Keith didn't have _any_ charm. Couldn't that guy do anything?

And now Lance felt like he couldn't even _think_ privately because _stupid fucking Keith_ was right there.

Chained to his wrist.

Keith and Lance were waiting in chairs watching Pidge as they typed furiously on their screen looking for safari hats and any reason Matt might have been captured.

Lance was bored watching all of the computer code but Shiro had instructed him and Keith stay with Pidge to help with analysis. As he waited, he reached over and grabbed one of the spherical techy doodads that Pidge had lying around and started balancing it in the bent line between his nose and his eyes.

It fell after thirty seconds and Keith snorted. "That's as long as you can go?"

"Is that a challenge?," Lance asked, quirking an eyebrow upwards. "I would like to see you do better. That'll be a warm up round. And then you have to prove you can do better." Lance tilted his head back and placed the ball balancing on the curve of his nose, focusing on how the ball would balance much more than he had the previous time.. Keith grabbed another of the balls and copied him.

"I bet you can't last forty-five seconds," Keith said and Lance could just _hear_ the smirk in the guy's voice.

"I bet you can't even last thirty," Lance retorted.

"Pidge!" Keith said, "Time us."

"I'm kind of busy," they grumbled, "Sorry, but time yourselves."

"Fine," Keith muttered. "Lance take your ball off for a minute, I will too. And then we can use your phone to time us."

"Why not your phone?" Lance muttered.

"Yes. Of course," Keith said dryly, "the suspected criminal still has his phone."

"Oh," Lance said, feeling stupid. He grabbed the ball, Keith did the same. He pulled out his phone and the stopwatch in the clock and then waited for Keith to get ready again. Once they were both in position, Lance pressed start and began balancing his ball.

He focused on barely breathing and just _beating_ Keith. If he moved, the ball would waver and fall. He didn't know how much time had passed when he heard a _thump_ and "SHIT."

"YES!" Lance shouted triumphantly lifting his ball off of his nose. "I am the King!" He raised both of his arms is praise for himself, welcoming his own glory.

"Nope," Keith said. "I fell once, you fell once. That was _my_ warmup round. Time to go again."

Lance opened his mouth to argue that he hadn't been trying the first time when Keith spoke up again, a lit fire dancing in his eyes. "Unless… you're too afraid that you'll lose in a rematch."

"Bring it on, mullet," Lance said, restarting the stopwatch, which was already over a minute do to their bickering, and began balancing.

He was the king.

He could win.

He just couldn't move.

Lance felt a light tug on his right arm. He lifted his hand, without looking and heard the jangling of the chain. Keith… Keith was trying to sabotage him!

Two could play at that game.

Lance yanked on the chain as hard as he could. Keith lurched out of his chair. Unfortunately, Lance dropped his ball in the process as well.

"What the _fuck_ , Lance?!" Keith shouted.

"You, started it first."

"But I didn't cause you to drop the ball," Keith retorted.

"OKAY!" Pidge yelled. "I get it, you are both five years old and very pretty. Now, can you let me fucking work?"

"Yes, Pidge," Keith said sullenly.

"Fine," Lance muttered.

They waited for a moment in silence. "Rematch without sabotage?" Lance asked.

"You're on."

They started again balancing their spheres and waiting for the seconds to tick by. Lance glanced at Keith and noticed that his eyes were closed in concentration. His hair hung back loosely and his arms were crossed over his chest. Lance noticed how… kind of hot he looked like that. He was peaceful yet determined but not angry. His lips were twisted up in the shadow of a smirk.

 _Thump._

 _Shit._ Lance had been too distracted by Keith to notice his own ball falling off.

"Ha!" Keith smirked, grabbing his sphere. "I won."

"Yes, captain obvious. You did," Lance rolled his eyes. "Let's go again. This time I'll definitely beat you."

"Nope," Keith said already getting into position.

The next round, Lance won. He celebrated and bounced around until they started again.

They kept going like that, keeping fairly tied until Pidge spun around in their chair and snatched the balls off of both of their heads.

"Thanks," they deadpanned, "I needed those."

"What are they for?" Lance asked. "We were using them."

"I know," Pidge said. "You wouldn't shut the fuck up either."

Lance scowled. He noticed Keith glaring at the back of Pidge's head.

"And these are for counting and tracking," Pidge said without any further explanation.

There was silence in the room for a little while. Lance hated silence.

"Pidge," Lance said with an edge of a whine in his voice, "Can we please put on some music?"

"If it gets you to shut up then fine," Pidge mumbled.

Lance opened his phone and tried to find a song that he enjoyed and that wouldn't be totally embarrassing. He found Imagine Dragons' _On Top of the World_ and put that on. As the melody started Lance started to bob his head. The words started and Lance stood up and began to move. He knew that Pidge and Keith were watching him but it was such a good song to move to.

The chain jingled as Lance dropped down to the ground and slowly rose up to the beat of the song.

"What are you doing?" Keith asked, his arms crossed.

"Dancing?" Lance said, twisting around, "Don't you dance, Mullet?"

Keith scoffed, "Not really. Maybe things have changed since I was here but we didn't really dance."

"That's just Lance," Pidge told Keith.

"Hey," Lance defended, "I liven things up."

He was having fun. He knew that he needed to be focusing on poor Matt, but he needed to decompress and this was how he did it. He joked, he competed with Keith, he danced.

The song came to an end and Lance struck a pose.

"Are you done?" Keith asked but he didn't sound exactly annoyed.

Lance tilted his head. "No… I have the perfect song in mind."

He scrolled through his phone absently humming the chorus of the last one until he found the song he was looking for.

The song started and Lance bobbed his head.

 _Oh don't you dare look back,_

Lance looked at Keith and Smirked.

"Oh, god," Pidge muttered, still typing away at their computer.

" _Just keep your eyes on me,"_ Lance sang along.

He pulled on the chain with just enough strength to get Keith out of his chair.

" _Shut up and Dance?_ " Keith questioned. "By Walk the Moon? Are you kidding."

"No," Lance laughed. "Shut up and Dance!"

Lance was dancing in a poppy bouncy sort of way but Keith was just standing there, his arms still crossed over his chest and an eyebrow raised as he watched Lance."

" _You're holding back!"_ Lance pulled the chain taught and used it to spin Keith around until he uncrossed his arms. Lance grabbed one and started bouncing with Keith, singing the lyrics the whole time.

"This is stupid," Keith muttered.

"This is fun!" Lance declared, forcing Keith to move. He was stiff and tough but it was more fun for Lance to have a goal to get Keith to move around.

The song came to a close. Lance was already feeling the excitement of moving coursing through him.

"Can I sit now?" Keith asked.

"No," Lance said, "not until I get you to move."

Keith sighed.

"Doesn't Matt like anime?" Lance asked.

"Yes," Pidge asserted. "Keith does too."

"Wonderful!" Lance grinned switching the song to Guren No Yumiya from Attack on Titan.

It was so wonderful to watch Keith's eyes widen in surprise and horror.

"JAEGER!" Lance shouted as the only word he knew. Already he was moving in fluidly robotic movements with the song. "If this song doesn't get you pumped up then nothing will."

Keith held out for another five second, before he started bobbing his head and moving to the beat.

Lance stepped with quick hops around the small room, dashing about in time to the song. Keith joined him, though he was admittedly, less excitable about it, It was still fun in Lance's opinion.

By the time they were at the second season's opening theme, Shiro came in to ask Pidge a question. Keith had rushed to sit in his chair, almost falling over in the process. Shiro had only smiled and shook his head. "Normally, I would request that you start working again but there's not too much you can do at the moment."

Shiro told them how they were waiting for the malls to agree to let them interview and investigate people. They also had to ask the families of the victims if they would be willing to be interviewed. Lance always hated that. He hated talking to the families of victims. He hated seeing their grief. He had joined the BAU to help _prevent_ that.

They had apparently just gotten confirmation to be able to go to all of the malls and look around. It was just past lunch time so they would have all afternoon to be able to look at them.

"I'll tell the group all at once," Shiro told them, "But basically the plan is to all head to the mall with the most recent and sloppiest attack, and then we'll split into two groups and cover the other two malls."

"Awesome," Keith said. "Great work, Shiro."

Shiro smiled faintly. "I am just hoping we find _something_ to help prove your innocence."

"Me too," Keith muttered sullenly.

There was a beat of silence before Pidge closed their computer in a huff. "Well I've been having the _best_ fucking luck of my life," they said in annoyed sarcasm obviously showing that they hadn't found anything.

Shiro frowned. "Would you rather stay here and search more?"

"No," Pidge said spitefully. "I need to have some kind of victory or I'm going to go fucking _nuts_."

"Sounds good to me," Lance said. "I guess let's get ready to go!"

~~~…

* * *

Keith~

Lance was killing him.

Slowly.

He didn't know what that stupid man had done to his head, but when he had been egged into competing with Lance, he found that it had been rather fun to tease him and utterly beat him.

And then Lance had started dancing. _Fucking dancing._

Keith hadn't been able to look away. The way his body moved was so fluid and yet upbeat and enthusiastic. And then he… he had made _Keith_ dance too.

And Keith had gone along with it, albeit, quite reluctantly. He hadn't wanted to dance with someone as annoying as Lance.

And yet…. Keith couldn't help but admire his positive attitude. The way that he could stay so upbeat and keep making jokes despite everything going on around them just amazed Keith. He was desperate to get Matt back, Keith could tell, but he wasn't letting that ruin his positive attitude.

Keith admired that.

He wouldn't stop making obnoxious jokes and puns no matter what.

"I have a feeling that this investigation will go _mall_ -vellously," Lance commented as they drove in the van towards the mall.

Everyone groaned in annoyance. Pidge was the only one who nodded calmly, "Good one but I've heard better."

Lance scowled and stuck out his tongue. "For your information, I am very punny."

"Ugh," Keith grumbled.

"Well," Shiro called, "We don't have to suffer any more because we are here. Besides, we all know that my puns are to _die_ for."

"I thought we agreed to not use death jokes or crime puns while on the job," Hunk said as the van rolled to a stop. Everyone got out and stretched.

Because of the chain pulling his arm, Keith was forced to watch Lance stretch his arms over his head resulting in the edge of his shirt lifting up.

Keith shook his head, telling himself that it didn't matter how smooth Lance's skin was and that it didn't matter how absolutely gay Keith was because Lance was a stupid fucking idiot who didn't deserve a second thought.

"Alright gang!" Shiro jokingly said, clapping his hands together to turn back towards everyone. "Job assignments: Pidge and Hunk, you guys go to the video room and look at the camera feed to see if you can get a better angle than the videos we already have. Look for people in Safari hats too."

"Aye, Aye, Cap'n!" Pidge said with an enthusiastic salute. "Come with me, First Mate," they said waving to Hunk as they started to walk inside.

Shiro shook his head. "Next, I want Allura and Coran to scout around and talk to any employees here. See if you can scout out the escapes and the layout of the mall and whatnot."

"Of course!" Coran grinned. "No one is better at the art of sneaking than me. I can find how the smallest of worms could get into this place."

Allura smiled slightly at Shiro, "I've got him," she told Shiro.

"So what are we doing?" Lance asked hopefully.

"The three of us are looking at evidence. The mall has been closed since the incident two days prior and the scene was mostly cleared up after we did an initial inspection." Shiro sighed, running a hand through his white bangs of hair. "We just need to look for some good clues. We're running out of ideas and... we have to find Matt."

"Then let's head in there!" Lance shouted excitedly. He started to dash off towards the mall only to find that Keith was not moving as quickly. Keith's arm was yanked out in front of him and he had to stumble forward to stay on his feet.

"Keith!" Lance cried. "C'mon! We have to get going!"

"We can at least walk like descent people," Keith replied.

"But where's the fun in that?"

"This is a crime investigation, there is no fun. I don't understand how you manage to stay so upbeat all of the time."

Keith glanced up to watch Lance's eyes narrow. "I stay upbeat because I have to. If I don't, then who will?"

Before Keith could respond, they heard a "Hello!" from in front of them.

They both turned to see Shiro walking backwards with his arms spread out. "I'm about to beat both of you and you guys can't do anything about it."

Keith glanced at Lance and they nodded with matching faces of determination. They didn't have to say anything to both take off running towards Shiro. He had turned around to start jogging towards the entrance but Keith and Lance were faster.

Keith took the lead, pulling Lance behind him to catch up, though, with Lance's long legs he was able to keep a pretty fair pace.

Keith saluted Shiro as he and Lance passed him and he laughed as he saw Shiro's mouth turn downwards in a scowl.

Keith and Lance made it to the door first. "Yes!" Keith said in triumph.

"And I even beat you!" Lance added, doing a kind of happy dance where he wiggled and pumped his arms and legs up and down.

"No you didn't," Keith objected.

"Yep. I did," Lance said smugly, crossing his arms over his chest and lifting his head in a sly smile. "See? I'm closer to the door right now."

"I would have beaten you in a heartbeat if you hadn't have been so slow to getting over here," Keith complained.

"So you admit that I beat you?" Lance leaned over to Keith slyly.

"I admit nothing. I clearly won or at the very least it was a tie."

"Alright gays," Shiro said, stepping up to them and grabbing Keith's shoulder. Keith turned to glare at him. He knew full well what Shiro had said and he _hoped_ that Lance didn't know. "It's time to head inside."

Shiro took the lead, going inside first with Keith and Lance behind him. Lance held back for a moment forcing Keith to stop and look at him.

"Did he say what I think he said?" Lance asked skeptically.

"Yes," Keith groaned.

"But..." Lance tried to say, his face having paled in dismay.

"Just don't question it," Keith advised, heading inside so he didn't have to look at Lance.

He was pretty sure that his face was red anyway.

Keith didn't know why it bothered him but he didn't want to think about Lance. He didn't want to think about how much he was noticing about the boy. He didn't want to think about the dark freckles that splattered across his nose or the mousey hair that fluttered slightly in the wind.

He hadn't even known Lance that long. Though... when he thought about it- and he tried not to— he did remember Lance. He remembered him back from school and training to be an agent in the field of capturing criminals. He did remember how he had dropped out due to Shiro's recommendation leaving Lance in that class.

It was kind of funny to think about the fact that he _did_ remember Lance.

Lance McClain.

 _Ugh_ Keith shook his head. He didn't care to remember any more about Lance than he had to.

And besides, they had to find Matt.

They had to find Matt and help rescue him. And catch a killer.

And they would be lucky if they even had another twenty four hours to find Matt.

* * *

Lance~

' _Alright gays_ '

What did that mean?

Did Shiro suspect that Lance liked Keith?

Did he suspect that he liked Shiro's adopted brother?

Was that statement a protective one? Or a warning? Or _what_?

And why would Shiro out Lance like that? Shiro had been the one person that Lance had opened up to and told about how he thought he was bi. After he had learned that Shiro was gay, he had just been a nice person who Lance could talk to.

He had only dated a girl once and he knew he liked girls, like that girl Nyma (and boy was she pretty!). But... at one point Lance had sat down and thought about if he were to be with another boy what that would be like.

And the idea didn't bother him.

He just thought it might bother other people. Like his family. He didn't want his friends, like Hunk, to get weird around him either.

It was just something he had never really wanted to tell other people because he didn't want their opinions of him to change. He didn't want them to act weirdly around him. It wasn't that he was ashamed to be bi. In fact, he was exceedingly proud.

But if felt like everyone would... treat him differently if he came out.

And another thing that bothered Lance was why would Shiro say 'alright gays' if he Keith was straight? Was Keith gay? Bi? Pan?

It would make sense that he would tell Shiro with Shiro being a brother to him and all. And a gay brother at that.

Before Lance could think about it further they had reached the evidence table.

The manager who Shiro had been talking to was showing them the very minimal amount of evidence they had which mostly consisted of the same pictures that the team had back at the BAU.

Lance skimmed over the pictures and notices a scarf on the table. It was a faded red color but with splashes of darker red.

Blood.

"Was this the victim's?" Lance wondered aloud, glancing at the photo of the victim on the table before leaning towards the scarf. The picture didn't show the victim wearing a scarf.

"I think so," Keith said, reaching out to pick up the scarf. He held it up, folded in half, with both of the ends dangling towards the ground.

"But why wasn't it taken away with the rest of the victim?" Lance asked.

"Because it wasn't on the victim," Shiro pointed out. He turned to the manager who had hung back, listening with a worried face. "Where did you find this?"

"Um... I... I believe it was given to lost and found and then the attendant there hadn't realized it was covered in blood until that night when we were putting the lost and found items into a larger area."

Keith nodded. "So most likely, this was taken as a prize by the unsub but was either given to the service desk by the unsub as some twisted way of freaking us out, or as a way to cause confusion. Or, as a second option, the unsub left the scarf somewhere or dropped it in an attempt to escape and a pedestrian found it and gave it to lost and found."

"Why would the unsub get rid of it if it was his trophy?" Lance wondered, picking up the picture of the victim. He was an older looking man with silvery greying hair that ran down his back. He was laying on his stomach but Lance could see the slice wounds that came from his stomach and neck. He was wearing a light grey polo shirt with some khaki pants. Both were stained red.

Lance was about to set the picture down when he noticed something. The victim was wearing a tie around his neck that was splayed upwards towards his face.

"H-hey guys?" Lance said. He lowered the picture, pointing to the tie. "Why would someone with a tie wear a scarf? Especially an older man who was wearing a polo shirt and Khaki shorts?"

Keith snatched the picture out of Lance's hand and brought it up to his face. "You're right. Why... why would an older man like this be wearing a scarf like this in this outfit."

"It could be a grandchild's..." Shiro suggested.

"No..." Lance said quickly, pacing back and forth.

"Lance is right," Keith said, speaking before Lance could, "This isn't Xi's. This is our unsub's. He must have gotten it dirty while he was killing and decided that he couldn't escape with a bloodied scarf."

"All we have to do is tell Pidge to look for someone wearing this and if it is Xi, the victim," Shiro said excitedly, already moving towards the door, "Then we will know for sure but if there is someone else wearing this scarf, then we're golden."

Shiro opened the door, Keith and Lance behind him. They marched off towards the tech room with the manager in the lead, showing them where to go.

"Great work Lance, Keith," Shiro told them. "This is a real clue. This will give us some solid information."

Lance smiled. "I wonder why the unsub would wear a scarf, though. It seems like something that would get him noticed more than it would leave him to be indiscriminate."

"A distractor!" Keith said as they walked, his pace quickening in excitement. "A scarf doesn't make you the most noticeable person but a defining birthmark or scar does! If the unsub has something on his face, he would want to either cover it up, and maybe it is on his neck so he can cover it up with a scarf, or he would use something like a hat or scarf to distract from it."

Shiro tapped his nose. "I think you're on it, Keith. That would make perfect sense and would fit the vague profile we have. Someone who is cocky, arrogant, and yet exceedingly smart. He's manipulative and cunning."

"All of those people are," Keith muttered. "But I still don't understand why they would do this."

"I don't know," Shiro sighed.

They reached the tech room and Lance was exceedingly confused. He didn't know what kind of group Keith had been in but he found himself a little more aware of the chain that linked them together. He knew that Keith was a good person. Right?

Well, Lance trusted Shiro and Shiro said that Keith was a good person. Was that enough though?

What was Keith's past?

Who was this group?

And why was Keith under such suspicion for being present at the crime scenes?

Granted, a person's presence at any of the crime scenes would make them a suspect just out of principal. But why was the conclusion instantly that Keith was a suspect? What had he done in the past to warrant that kind of jump in being a suspect?

"Pidge," Shiro announced as they entered.

Pidge had been sitting in a chair, typing furiously on a computer with images of all kinds flashing across the screen. Hunk was leaning on their chair, watching what was going on on the screen. Both of them jumped and spun around when the group entered.

Hunk stumbled and almost fell onto the ground but managed to catch himself.

"Jeez!" He cried while Pidge shouted, "What the fuck?! Can't you knock or something? We were not prepared to be intruded upon."

Keith didn't even stop at Pidge's comment and just pressed on. "We have new information. And you're gonna want to hear this."

"What?" Pidge asked, curiosity piqued.

"We found out a clue," Lance added, excitedly. "So I was looking at this bloodied scarf that was on the evidence table and then I noticed that the victim, this really old guy, was wearing a polo shirt and khakis. Well the polo shirt was a light grey color and it really didn't match with the red scarf, but anyway-"

"Does this have a point?" Pidge asked, already sounding annoyed.

Shiro stepped up, "Yes, the point is that the victim seems unlikely to have been wearing this scarf so we think it is a distractor that the unsub uses to hide a birthmark or maybe a scar on his face. we were thinking that whoever had this scarf is probably our unsub."

"Wait... how was it left in the mall?" Hunk asked.

Keith, still holding the scarf, presented it to them and Pidge turned around, ready to start searching the video feeds.

"It was found in a lost and found box at one of the service stations so we aren't really sure how it was dropped off," Shiro stepped in to add. "We were wondering if it got covered in blood so the unsub left it to cause fear and confusion or something later, or if he dropped it onto the ground and left the scarf and another pedestrian found it, didn't notice the blood, and turned it in."

"Okay," Pidge said, "I'm skimming through the video feeds to see if I can see anyone wearing that red scarf."

They all leaned on the back of their chair, also looking for the unsub on the video feeds.

There was a moment of silence and then Hunk whispered, "Doesn't this seem just... too perfect?"

"Yes," Pidge said. "This unsub is brilliant. The place where the murder was, that place was away from all of the cameras and even the most distant ones were blocked by people. Plus, these malls are _very_ public places so only the most idiotic genius or the luckiest dumbass would be able to pull off these murders."

Keith nodded. "Yeah, I only really see public places as being the drop site or the murder place if the unsub is doing a hit and run. Usually someone sees _something_."

Lance shrugged, "Do you know how often people are on their phones these days? If the unsub were to muffle the victim he could _easily_ make it look like either an accident or like just some father-son bonding or something. It's twisted but people don't generally see things that they don't _expect_ to see."

"Yeah," Hunk added. "Most people wouldn't _expect_ to see a murder taking place in front of them. Just like they wouldn't expect a large group of ducks to start singing opera."

"Opera?" Keith questioned. "I'm sorry but, what the fuck, Hunk?"

Hunk shrugged. "It was the first thing that came to my mind."

"So ignoring Hunk," Pidge said, "we are looking for someone who blends in while still standing out. We want someone who looks like you would notice them for a split second and then dismiss them for being another run-of-the-mill person that you pass all of the time."

"I think that's what the scarf is for," Shiro added. "It is meant to distract you from something about him, probably a scar, that he doesn't want you to see. If you see that, you remember him. If you see a random Joe wearing a scarf you don't bother with it."

"I've got something!" Pidge cried triumphantly. They clicked on a video in the upper right hand corner. The time dated it to be just after Xi's death.

Pidge clicked the video again as it started to play to make it zoom in on a particular box.

Everyone was silent as they watched the blurry video. In it, a person, someone with a long sleeved navy shirt and jeans and a dark hat on (something kind of like a beanie), covering his hair, was walking quickly away from where Lance thought the murder had been committed.

He was holding the red scarf in his hands and he passed by another pedestrian.

Then the unsub walked out of the video's range.

The pedestrian was now holding the scarf. He took a quick turn and was out of the video's view.

Everyone was silent as the video started to play again.

"So he does have accomplices," Shiro murdered.

"Just the one?" Lance wondered. "Or could there be more? Is this a group effort?"

"We were already thinking that," Keith added.

"But I was hoping that this unsub was acting on his own and we wouldn't have to go to see the whole group." Shiro sighed. Lance glanced at him. His face was pale. He looked anxious.

"Let me try to follow the unsub through the day," Pidge said. "And I'll follow that accomplice too and see if they interact with anyone else or if I can see their face."

Shiro placed his hand on Pidge's shoulder. "Good work Pidge. We're going to go and scout the evidence to see if we can't find anything else. Maybe we'll just have to check the lost and found too."

"You got it," Pidge said already typing furiously on the computer.

Shiro turned to Lance and gave him a half-smile. "And you too, Lance. You did good."

Lance shrugged, turning away to hide his smile. "Well, you know, just an average day in the life of Lance."

Keith whacked his shoulder. "Sure if you count moaning about having to wake up and racing to the mall as an average day then you are doing just fine."

"Is that supposed to be an insult?" Lance asked. "Because it sounds like awesomeness to me. You forgot to add the finding clues part though. I mean... so far I have found a book and a scarf. And you have found what?" He quirked an eyebrow up, leaning towards Keith skeptically.

"I mentioned the distraction idea about the scarf," Keith said cooly, and I managed to _actually_ interrogate the suspects this morning unlike you who just flirted and the best question you asked was if you could get a phone number."

Lance scowled. "That isn't true. I was persuading her through my amazitude."

"Amazitude?" Keith frowned and shook his head. "I don't think that's a word Mr. Smartass."

"Aw, you think I'm smart?" Lance asked.

Keith snorted. "Definitely not."

"At least I'm not a dropout."

"At least I was taken out because I was brilliant."

"You were taken out because of Shiro," Lance countered.

"I'm staying out of this," Shiro interjected. "But I do think that it would be wise if we were to get back to work instead of bickering."

"Fine," Lance and Keith both said as they made their way back to the evidence room.

"I'll just have to find another clue to make it three for three," Lance smirked.

"Not if I beat you to it," Keith added, grinning competitively.

* * *

Shiro~

Not them.

They couldn't have done it.

But which would he rather? That Keith have committed the murders or the one group that he trusted to be okay?

He couldn't say.

Now, he stared at the evidence in a new light. He had suspected them before but it just hadn't seemed likely.

Knowing that they might be the culprits of these crimes made him notice the little things. The tiny drops of blood on the plant by the murder, but that had been clearly wiped away.

The shaky start to the drawing of their symbol. The rushed ending that lacked detail like in the other malls.

They were such an elite group. So skilled. There was no way that their team could stand against this group if everyone was involved. Maybe Shiro would be lucky and their unsub would be a deserter..

Like Keith.

Shiro couldn't help but glance at him. He trusted Keith with his life. But... he had thought the same about _them_.

Maybe he was jumping to conclusions.

Or maybe he was playing favoritism.

Keith seemed on edge too.

But... he was getting along with Lance if you could call bickering and competing as getting along. And wasn't that a good thing? Didn't that show how relaxed he was?

Shiro rubbed his eyes. His head was already hurting from thinking about the case and worrying about Matt. And now he had to try to deal with _them_?

The most terrifying part was that he knew they could take him and his team down in a heartbeat if they wanted to. They had just never wanted to.

Shiro paused from staring at the photographs to look at Keith and Lance. They were staring intently at their own photos, analyzing each others and looking for potential clues. They weren't even bickering. Much.

It was also nice that Keith seemed relaxed. Well, relaxed for Keith which was still a tightly wired coil of string ready to spring out at any given moment.

Still, a criminal stuck with the task force would be doubtful to feel relaxed at any point in time.

He had just gotten back to looking at the pictures when the door opened and Allura and Coran walked in.

"Hello, Chief," Coran said first. "We have come to report out findings."

"Alright," Shiro smiled, forcefully. He welcomed the change in pace. It would help to enforce their profile if they could figure out how the unsub would be likeliest to escape.

"So there are six exits that do not go through department stores," Allura said. "We think that he would take the one closest to the murder," Coran pulled out a map so Allura could point to the door in question, "But that seems to be the most suspicious. At the other malls it would make more sense if he took a department store exit but by this one, people were more likely to recognize him so it would make sense that he would try to escape as soon as possible."

"No…" Keith murmured quietly. "He wouldn't take a department store exit in another mall because those would have very guarded cameras. More likely, he would take a general exit that was surrounded by lots of people so that he could just escape no big deal."

"Yeah…" Shiro agreed. "He probably took either this exit or this one," he pointed to two exits that were a fair distance from the murder but neither was that accessible.

"But if he got blood on him he would want to take this exit before anyone spotted him," Lance added.

"We need to look at the other malls," Allura said. "Scout out what they have."

"Okay," Shiro nodded. "I'll go get Pidge and Hunk and see if they've found anything as well. Maybe they found the partner."

"Partner?" Coran asked.

"Oh, yeah," Lance said, "We found this bloody scarf. See? So then we went to Pidge to try to look on the videos and we saw a partner on there."

"Well, that's a lot to miss," Allura said.

"Yeah so the profile changed a bit." Lance said.

"We'll fill you in on our way to the next mall," Shiro said, already out the door and heading towards Pidge.

They had to hurry. They had to get out there and try to find Matt. His time was running out.

* * *

Keith~

The drive to the next mall was uneventful. They dropped Allura and Coran and Pidge off at the Olkarie mall and then Hunk, Shiro, Lance, and Keith drove towards the other mall.

"Okay, Hunk," Shiro said, briefing everyone in the van, "You are on tech duty. Find those videos. Watch them quickly. Upload and save them if you have to. I'm going to scout out the exits. Keith, Lance, you two work on evidence."

"Should I be afraid to be alone in a room with you?" Lance asked Keith.

"Well, after last night," Hunk said slyly.

"What happened last night?" Shiro asked. Keith could hear the strain in his voice. He could see how white his knuckles were as they drove.

"Nothing," Keith said nonchalantly. "Hunk just was hearing things. And to respond to you, Lance: No you don't have to be afraid of me. It's not like I'm going to shoot you or something."

"Keith," Shiro chastised, "you really can't joke about this. Hunk, you too. As much as we are letting you help us because of how much help you can be, you are still, technically, our prime suspect and we really can't have you just thinking everything is fine."

"You know I didn't do it, Shiro," Keith sighed. "You know I wouldn't. I can't. There would be no way I could become what I fear and fight."

"Did you know?" Lance questioned, "That in the first of the _Batman: Dark Knight_ trilogy, Batman becomes a bat because he is terrified of them so he wants to share his fear with others."

Keith snorted, "Lance... that was so random."

"What?" Lance asked. "I was just asking if you knew a fact. I wanted to impart my movie knowledge onto you." He made a finger gun and pointed it at Keith.

Keith sighed and shook his head. Why was it that Lance's actions were almost becoming somewhat amusing and fun to be around? Lance was obnoxious. They shouldn't be growing closer together. Not in two days.

Though he supposed that anyone chained together would be forced to grow close quickly.

Keith was relieved when they reached the mall so that he didn't have to worry about thinking about the person sitting next to him and chained to his wrist.

Shiro said, "Alright team! Let's move out. try to be as quick and efficient as possible."

Keith knew that Shiro was on edge from Matt being gone and their mall search had become a fruitless excursion. Besides the scarf and the partner that is.

Keith couldn't worry about that now, though.

He and Lance headed to the evidence room after asking the manager of the mall to let them see any evidence. All that they had was a file with some pictures.

Keith looked at the body of the poor woman, Te-Osh, who had died. She was young with a nice periwinkle blue dress on and her brown hair was short and fluffy.

She looked absolutely nothing like Xi.

"So what do you think the correlation between these two is?" Keith asked Lance. "The only thing I can find would be Matt."

"That's it," Lance muttered. "I think that is the only correlation between them. Before Matt was taken, we couldn't settle on a victimology profile because we couldn't find any similarities. We looked at everything. But these three have nothing in common."

Lance continued looking at the pictures for a moment before asking, "Do you know how Matt knew Te-Osh?"

Keith pursed his lips, thinking, "I think it has to do with how they worked together back in school. I know she was never on the BAU but she might have been in another close devision. A detective-like division. Like the one Matt is in now."

Lance nodded. Everything was quiet for another minute.

It was weird having silence around Lance. Keith wondered why he was being so quiet.

Keith glanced up and noticed that his face was downturned in a look of almost nervous worry.

"Do you..." Lance started, "Do you know why Matt would be targeted?"

"I think it has to do with that one case. The one Matt and I left because of."

"Would you tell me about it?" Lance asked quietly. "I know the rough details. I know that Shiro and Hunk were taken captive and tortured. I know that you and Matt had it the hardest."

"It won't sound that bad," Keith said, "but you don't know the fear you feel when half of your team is missing and you are receiving threats that if we don't stop looking for them they will die, but that they'll die anyway soon. ."

"Threats? Shiro never mentioned any threats," Lance said softly. He had turned around and was leaning against the table with his arms crossed over his chest.

"That's because we never told him..." Keith whispered.

"What?" Lance breathed, shocked.

Keith closed his eyes. "Every day that they were gone, we would receive about four to five videos of how they were being tortured. Videos of this criminal sewing their hands... videos of them being beaten... videos of them crying out in pain..." Keith paused, taking a deep breath, trying to get the images to leave his mind so that he could think blankly. Emotionlessly. "You've never had to watch a video of your family- your friends being tortured to almost death. You haven't had to watch it _over and over_ again looking for just _one_ detail that might let you save their lives."

Lance was, thankfully silent, his eyes downcast and his gaze somber.

"We didn't know what to think. We were frantic. Pidge was working around the clock. We all were. I don't think Pidge, Matt, and I slept for 48 plus hours."

"Wow..." Lance breathed.

"We were told that if we didn't find them in 55 hours, they would die. And that every five hours a new video would be sent, finishing with them dying. It was horrific and made us panic."

"How... how did you find them?" Lance asked softly.

Keith was quiet for a minute, gathering his thoughts.

"We were at the 51st hour when we realized that the second to last video contained a crucial clue. We could see a specific flowering tree in the backdrop. So we matched up and found _all_ of those trees that existed in the town. We tried our hardest to work quickly. Then, at the 53rd hour, we finally managed to find a small, quaint house that had one of these blooming trees in their backyard. Desperate, Matt and I disregarded safety and barged into the house. I searched upstairs, Matt searched down. We didn't find anything. We were emotional, ready to panic. And then we opened what looked like a laundry chute on the bottom floor and found that it was a basement. Besides the cliche, this place was terrifying."

Keith swallowed. He remembered it like it was the most terrifying horror movie he had ever seen in his life.

"At the top... it looked like a normal stairwell. dark wood, hand railing, everything was fine. But only the light from the other rooms was getting to the basement. No artificial light even. We had to turn on our flashlights to see... and as we descended the stairs... it was like a horror movie."

"What... what did it look like?" Lance asked tentatively.

Keith closed his eyes, remembering the image despite not wanting to. "Stairs were broken towards the bottom, the rail was chipped and peeling with splinters like victims had tried to claw their way up. There were bloody handprints and bursts of blood that were sometimes thick and glistening. The wood was splintered into clumps around large holes."

"What happened?" Lance breathed.

"So what we speculated was that the unsub would cut off the tendons and muscles on the back of the victim's legs and then let them crawl up the stairs, probably with the promise that they would be granted freedom if they made it up the stairs. And then the unsub would use a gun, either a pistol or a shotgun and shoot them point-blank and let them die."

There was a pause of silence. Keith glanced at Lance's face. His forehead was creased and his mouth was slightly agape. He didn't say anything but the horror was apparent on his face.

"You caught him though... right?" Lance whispered.

"No," Keith said bitterly. "He escaped while Matt and I were preoccupied with worrying about Shiro and Hunk. They were in bad shape when we found them. We didn't bother with the immediate chase because we were trying to get Shiro and Hunk to a hospital as quickly as we could. By the time Pidge, Matt, and I picked up the trail again, the unsub was long gone. And when Pidge checked out the address of that house, we found that it was under an alias of Milga Zopilm and that it was a recently created name. So we had no information and not much time to keep with the small thread we had until we had to focus on other cases."

Keith took a breath, "He got away and we never caught him. Pidge, Matt, and I still haven't shared the full story with Shiro or Hunk because we don't want their pity. Please don't tell them."

Lance was quiet. Then he looked up and took a step closer to Keith. "I- I don't know what to say..." he whispered.

"Nothing. You don't have to say anything," Keith mumbled turning back to the photos.

And then... And then Keith felt warmth. Keith gasped and froze, trying to stand as still as he could. Lance's arms were wrapped around him, his head nestled into Keith's back.

"That would have been one of the hardest things to go through," Lance said softly. "I couldn't have done it. And I couldn't have kept it a secret."

"I don't need your pity," Keith grumbled trying to shove Lance off of him.

Lance held tight, "Well that's good cause I don't pity you. I'm showing you my respect."

Keith stopped.

"I think that this is a very particular case. And I bet that Matt is suffering the same thing Shiro and Hunk went through. This is most likely the Unsub's ego telling him that he can torture all of you. I bet that after Matt, he was going to try to capture you." Lance let go of Keith and leaned up with his elbows on the table, right next to Keith. Keith felt the absence of his warmth. He generally didn't like physical contact... but this time, he felt like he was kind of missing Lance's touch. He was also painfully aware of how close Lance was to him.

"Yeah..." Keith laughed softly and without humor. "I bet if you hadn't of captured and imprisoned me, I would have been kidnapped by this guy."

Lance looked downwards. "Yeah... I bet so. I wonder if he knows that the team has changed or if he is clueless."

"Are you worried that he's going to grab you because you are the new victim and you are directly with me?" Keith asked, joking slightly.

"What?" Lance smirked, "Me? I just want to make sure that _you_ are safe."

"What? Lance McClain being ultra vain and sarcastic?" Keith remarked. "I've never heard of such a thing."

"That's because It isn't true," Lance said slyly.

Keith rolled his eyes. "Yeah right, McClain. Just look at the photos for evidence."

Lance laughed. "Alright, Mullet," he said softly.

* * *

Shiro~

Shiro was worried for Matt.

He had been all morning, but the more he thought about who the suspects could be, the more it made sense.

In a twisted way, it was already why he had chosen Keith to be taken in. It was the group that he couldn't help but suspect and wonder about.

As Shiro did a perimeter check and found all of the exits, he started calculating which exit was most likely to have been taken after the murder.

Their unsub was either a genius or an idiot to commit these murders.

He should have seen the symbol and instantly assumed it to be them, but of course he had hoped for the best and that it wasn't them. It just wasn't their style.

Plus, the murders were the expert level of someone who's been killing for a long time.

The unsubs had to be agile, stealthy, intelligent, and willing to risk themselves over and over again. And though he couldn't think of a motive, the only group that fit the description, was the Marmora.

And Shiro would have to face them.

* * *

Notes:Please comment if there were any mistakes or weird parts!

The following chapters are probably going to get darker and more violent. More criminal ish.

Fyi, it will probably be a while before I post another chapter. This one was already 65% done when I posted the last chapter.

Thank you for reading! Comments and Kudos endorse me to write more! :)

(oh and yes, that name is coded. But good luck to anyone figuring it out! It isn't an easy one.)


	4. Hard Truths

Note: Hiiiii!  
I have not been here in forever. Okay so season 7 kind of... yeah. I lost inspiration to write for a little while and even getting 500 words on this was painful. (Plus school has been kicking my ass). And then I finally got back into writing! Huzzah! I had to rewrite a ton and write the rest of the chapter itself. This did not turn out even close to what I was planning but that's okay!

It will probably be a while before another chapter. My guess would be after s8. :( I'm not going to stop writing though. There's only two...maybe three more chapters I want to write so not that much left to do and I will be continuing after s8.

Okay, for anyone who has read the other three chapters prior to... yesterday, I would highly advise you go back and reread them. I spend all of the last week editing and revising them so they are much better (and all of the Shallura was cut out). You don't have to, not too much changed, but it's also been a while since I published a chapter so there is that as well.

And final note, I don't know why Kolivan turned out like... this. He just did. I actually really like Kolivan in the show and I really like his character but... yeah.

Warning: sad ending and violence at the end. And a character throws up at the end if that is something you want warning about.

Thank you, everyone reading this! I am excited to continue and enjoy this chapter!

* * *

.

Keith~

Keith lay awake, staring at the ceiling of Lance's room. Lance was asleep next to him, his head turned away from Keith, his chest rising and falling with each breath as soft snores escaped from his between his lips.

Keith couldn't sleep.

That much was apparent to him the moment that Lance passed out while Keith just laid there.

So much had happened.

So much.

Keith swallowed, rolling onto his side to face away from Lance. His mind blankly flashed to how much he wanted a new change of clothes and a shower. He even thought how he _might_ just be willing to have Lance in the bathroom…. Or to have to borrow some of Lance's clothes.

But that was irrelevant.

His mind felt so blank.

He didn't know what to think.

No… it was more like he was afraid to go there.

He knew that a couple of miles away, Shiro was up in the BAU office, probably worrying himself sick. He knew that he was counting down the seconds to sunrise.

And Keith…. Keith knew what he was anticipating.

Lance and Keith had been staring blankly at the evidence pictures when Pidge and Hunk had crashed through the door. Lance had been the only one really working. Keith couldn't focus. He could only see those dark… dark stairs that lead down to Shiro and Hunk.

Was Matt down there now?

Was he waiting?

Suffering?

When Pidge and Hunk had burst through, there had been no jokes. Nothing about Lance and Keith's somber faces. Nothing about them being in a room together. Nothing.

Pidge hadn't even been smiling. "Come on," they had said darkly. "Shiro came and got us and was giving you guys more time to work. It's time."

"But it's only five?" Lance protested glancing at the wall clock. It wasn't like they were working, though. The air felt still. Keith felt like they were pinned against a wall, unable to move. No one responded to him.

They walked out to find Coran and Allura standing just outside the mall door talking to the manager— telling him thanks and that they hoped the mall would reopen soon.

The six of them walked out of the mall and to the van parked outside. The engine was running with a dull rumble as they climbed inside.

Keith had half expected Shiro to snap at them to hurry. But he didn't. He was silent.

He didn't ask them what they had found. Pidge and Hunk didn't share any information about what they had found on the research tapes, though Keith suspected that they had found something considering the way that Pidge and Hunk were both fidgeting.

Overall, the whole van was silent.

Lance and Pidge were quiet.

Coran's usual smile was dulled down.

Shiro… Shiro looked on the verge of breaking.

His forehead was creased in nerves, his bottom lip tucked behind his teeth. His eyes were settled straight ahead, his fingers wrapped tensely around the steering wheel.

Keith wanted to ask what he had found. What he suspected.

But when they got out of the van at the BAU, Shiro announced briefly: "That's all for today. Come back early tomorrow." And that was it.

Keith dragged Lance behind him until he grabbed Shiro's shoulder. "Shiro," he said darkly, "What's wrong? What did you figure out?"

"It's nothing Keith. I'll tell you tomorrow."

"No," Keith said concretely. "Tell me now."

Shiro stayed quiet for a moment, not looking at Keith and instead pulling away from him weakly. "Keith… I can't tell you."

And Keith understood.

And Keith let him go.

Shiro slipped back towards the BAU.

And then Lance was behind him, his fingers gripping Keith's arm lightly. His voice was soft as he said, "Keith…"

Keith didn't turn towards him.

"Keith… Let's go home. Let's rest."

His head on a pillow, Keith closed his eyes. The chain on his wrist jingled lightly.

Laying down next to Lance, Keith stared at the chain, the silver of it glinting in what little light shone from the hall.

He couldn't stop thinking about Shiro.

Shiro.

His brother.

He knew that he was a prisoner.

He was the suspect.

And that's why Shiro couldn't tell him.

But it hurt.

It hurt and, though Keith tried to keep his mind from going there, he couldn't help but think that he knew what Shiro was thinking.

He knew.

He had to know that it was the same man who had captured him previously.

Keith wasn't sure how, but Shiro knew. Shiro knew and he was facing the same fact that Keith was.

Keith traced the silver chain.

He heard a rustling as Lance shifted in his sleep.

"Keith?"

Keith blinked sharply and started at the noise of Lance speaking.

"Are you still awake?"

Keith debated staying quiet. He wanted Lance to just go back to sleep. He didn't want to deal with everything.

He expected Lance to talk about what had happened, and he didn't want to. He didn't want to revisit those memories. He didn't want to even admit that the whole ordeal had happened and could easily happen again.

That Matt could be going through it.

But… his mouth opened and he uttered as soft "Yeah," before even realizing that he had broken his resolution of silence.

Lance sat up beside him, rubbing his eyes and leaning back against the headboard of the bed.

Keith sighed and followed his lead, sitting up and back against the headboard. There was no light, but Keith could see Lance's outline and the way his eyes were downcast.

Though he wouldn't admit it, he also noticed the smooth contour of his shoulders and chest as Lance leaned back.

"So... Can't sleep?" Lance asked softly.

Keith shook his head, "What do you want, Lance?" He rubbed his eyes, not really wanting to talk to him..

"I... I can't sleep," Lance whispered. "And... I think we should talk."

"What about?" Keith asked dryly. His mood was not improving. "And weren't you just asleep?"

Lance hunched over like he was flinching or blushing. "Maybe. Yeah. Well, I wanted to talk about... today."

Keith sighed, "Alright. Fine, let's get this over with." But he didn't elaborate. He wanted Lance to make the first move. To speak first.

"You..." Lance trailed off and then started again, "My whole life, I was taught to be compassionate. My philosophy is to cheer people up. I'm the joke. The clown. And... I guess that doesn't really fit in the BAU."

Lance shook his head, "Nope, I'm getting off topic. What I mean to say is that... I _want_ to feel bad for you. Sorry for you. You're an orphan right? Well to not have anyone besides Shiro and then to almost lose Shiro... That isn't something that _anyone_ should go through."

Lance paused long enough for Keith to say, "Is that it?"

"No. Keith, I want to feel bad for you. I do. But, I feel bad for every one of us in the BAU. Pidge hasn't spoken with their father in _months_ and if they do speak to him, they don't tell him about the cases they do. They pass it off as being nothing. Nothing dangerous at least. Their father thinks that they just type away on a computer all day."

Keith lowered his head. He remembered how Pidge and Matt used to talk to their dad all of the time. And he remembered the day that changed. When Pidge and Matt had been called by their father. When they had rushed home. When they had come back a little more broken, knowing that they could never hug their mom again. Knowing that a stupid thing like cancer could have taken so much.

He wasn't even sure that they had told him that Matt was gone.

"Hunk and Shiro... they were both _tortured_." Lance lowered his head, "I've lived with Hunk for years and even I didn't know that. And... and Allura lost her father... and Coran lost his son..."

"So who did you lose?" Keith said dryly, hoping it to come off as a joke. He was bad at jokes. He should have remembered that he can't joke.

Lance was quiet. Deathly silent. He opened his mouth. Said nothing. Closed his mouth. Paused. And then he opened his mouth and spoke, quiet as a mouse's whisper or a butterfly's wing beat, "My sister."

Keith stopped immediately. He realized what he had said. His breath choked back into his throat. He didn't know what to say. He... he was stunned.

"Lance..." he choked out.

Lance held up his hand, his eyes closed. "Keith, stop, It's fine. I'm..."

"No, you aren't fine," Keith said. "None of us are..."

Lance let out a snort of laughter, "That is true."

"I am sorry..." Keith muttered.

"Stop. I don't want your pity just like you don't want mine."

Keith nodded. "I suppose we're all just broken."

"I suppose so..." Lance was silent for a heartbeat before saying, "I just.. I want you to know that I understand. I get it. And... I don't want to seem cold... but I don't want to seem like I'm pitying you."

Keith nodded, "Yeah, I get it."

They were silent. Sitting in the quiet darkness, listening to each other's breath.

Keith thought that that was it. That they were going to go back to trying to sleep. That he would stare at the wall and try to figure out what was going on in their minds.

But Lance spoke again. "Keith… I… I don't think you're some kind of psychopath."

"Should I take that as a compliment?"

Lance rolled his eyes, "What I mean is, that I don't think you could kill those people. Not when you know how much it would hurt Shiro and the others and those victim's families. I've seen you have empathy. You aren't a psychopathic killer."

"That… good, I guess," Keith replied.

"Keith," Lance said tiredly, "I… I mean to say that I don't think you killed those people. And… I know you were worrying about that."

Lance sighed and laid back down on the bed, his head resting on his arm.

Keith didn't know what to say. It was… really nice to have support but… would that backfire for Lance? If he was the next target, wouldn't that just make Lance more of a target?

"Keith?" Lance asked softly, staring at the ceiling.

"Yeah?" Keith asked, settling down next to Lance.

"I think that you should remind Pidge of that name that you found in the last case. I think you should ask them to anagram it. See if they recognize anyone's name in wherever we are going to interview."

"That's a good idea." Keith said quietly. "But… what if we do find that unsub?"

"Then you can finally get revenge after months of pain and heartache," Lance told him sourly.

"But that's exactly what this unsub might be doing. Getting revenge on us through Matt. What would I do if I saw him? Confronted him? I— I don't know that I can keep calm through that."

"Keith," Lance said softly.

Hearing his name said so quietly, so carefully, stopped Keith in his tracks. His breath caught and he gasped. He swore that a shiver went down his back.

"I'll be there with you," Lance put his hand, the one with the chain, on Keith's shoulder, comfortingly, "Shiro will be there. Hunk, Pidge, Allura, Coran. And maybe even Matt. We'll all be angry. We'll all have to contain our emotions. But we can do it _together._ "

Keith smiled at him. "Okay. You're right. Plus, bringing him in for prison and interrogation is a way worse punishment than death."

"Lance smirked. "You're right on that fact."

Lance's hand had fallen from Keith's shoulder and rested on the bed. Another pleasant silence fell over them. A quiet calmness.

Keith was quiet for several heartbeats but… he wanted to say something. "Lance… about what you said earlier… with not fitting in… I get it. I have never fit in anywhere. The BAU was the only place where I felt like I had a family who cared about me. And that's because of Shiro."

"I've never fit either. Not fully. My family never really accepted me and after…. They always blamed me."

Keith heard the hurt in Lance's voice the raw vulnerability. The raw pain. And it hurt him to hear.

"Do… do you want to talk about it?" he asked Lance softly.

Surprisingly, Lance turned and smiled at him. In the dim light Keith noticed the little dimples in Lance's cheeks and the soft gleam in his eye. "No. Not right now," he said like the whisper of the wind. "But thank you, Keith. It really means a lot to me."

Keith nodded, insanely curious as to what Lance's past was about, but proud that he had gotten Lance to smile so genuinely.

"Yeah, no problem. Anytime," Keith told him.

"Maybe after we find Matt," Lance sighed heavily.

"We can find him," Keith said, trying his best to sound optimistic.

"Yeah, I sure hope so. Shiro need it."

"He does," Keith mumbled. They all needed Matt. Pidge needed their brother. Keith needed his friend. And Shiro… Shiro needed _Matt_.

"Are Shiro and Matt…" Lance started to ask but them trailed off.

"At one point, Matt had feelings for Shiro. But my brother's an idiot and never figured it out. I think he's understanding that now."

Lance chuckled lightly. "I guess we might have a couple if we rescue Matt."

"Yeah…" Keith breathed, the 'if' of Lance's statement weighing heavily on his mind.

"Wait," Lance said softly, "I thought that Shiro liked Allura?"

"No," Keith smirked. "Shiro is gay as fuck. He just doesn't go around advertising it. Plus, I suppose that he's more demiromantic so he doesn't hit on any man that he meets."

"But he might date someone he's known for a while, like Matt."

"Yep."

"Cool," Lance breathed.

There was a pause of silence. And awkward one. Keith didn't feel bad about outting Shiro because Shiro had told him that he didn't care who knew. Shiro was proud of who he was. And Keith was too.

Keith remembered the first Pride parade that Shiro had taken him to all of those years ago, just after he had come out to Shiro.

"Do you think you could get some sleep?" Lance asked, his voice full of concern.

"Yeah," Keith breathed, sliding down in the bed until his head was resting on a pillow. He looked up at Lance who was still sitting up. "You should sleep too."

Lance nodded and slid down into the bed next to Keith.

"Goodnight Keith," Lance whispered. They were facing each other. Keith could see and study Lance's face.

"Goodnight… Lance," Keith breathed unable to believe how different things were from the previous night.

He wasn't as terrified to fall asleep. And… and he finally felt like maybe Lance did have his back. Maybe.

~~~.

Lance~

The drive in the van was silent.

Pidge looked out the window forlornly. Hunk fidgeted in his seat. Coran and Allura stared out the window. Shiro glared at the road, his hands wrapped tightly around the wheel.

And then there was Keith.

Chained to Lance.

He was amazed. He couldn't believe that Keith had been allowed to come. He couldn't believe that Shiro trusted him that much. Or… maybe he didn't and this was the best way to test Keith's loyalty.

Lance touched the gun on his hip holster. He tried not to think about it much… but… he had a gun… and he knew that if… if Keith did turn, that he would be the most able to take him down.

But could he?

If Keith turned, could Lance shoot him? After everything?

 _I don't think so_ … Lance realized softly. He had only been with Keith for a couple days. He knew that he had a tempter and could change at a moment's notice, but he also knew that Keith cared about everyone in the team, especially Shiro.

And… Lance couldn't shoot him.

There was no way.

But he… he might have to.

Lance shuddered and pushed the thought out of his mind.

He glanced at Keith. He was staring at Shiro, intensely, his eyes dancing with worry.

As soon as Pidge had arrived at the BAU, Keith had pulled them to the side and reminded them of the anagramed name that they had found when searching for Shiro and Hunk. Pidge had seen his point immediately and had nodded, agreeing to search through names once again.

Lance had watched as Pidge glanced back behind them at Keith nervously.

"We'll get him back. We did before," Pidge reassured him.

Keith merely nodded and didn't say anything else.

Now, Lance wasn't even completely sure what was going to happen. All he knew is that they were heading to the illusive Marmora, a sophisticated gang that Shiro allowed to keep going.

Lance watched out the window as Shiro pulled the van into a dark alleyway, parking the van along the side of one of the buildings.

Lance got out followed by Keith. As he looked around, he saw piles of garbage stacked along the side, a cliche cat yowling and bounding over the fence that lay decrepit and broken along the wall.

Glancing at Keith, Lance noticed that his head was downturned, his eyes darting about. He was skittish. Nervous.

Subconsciously, Lance touched the handle of his gun.

"Are you sure this is the place?" Hunk asked softly. "I would have thought that…"

"Yes," Keith barked bitterly. "This is the place."

"Follow me," Shiro muttered, his voice thick and husky, before anyone could offer more observations.

He walked to an edge of the wall where boards of fencing lay strewn against it, and pushed them aside to reveal a small hole.

"Is this the only way to get into the building?" Pidge asked.

No one responded. Only Keith and Shiro had ever been inside or even to this place. The hole that they had to duck through was small. Shiro got on his hands and knees to crawl through while Pidge merely slouched over.

Shiro was in first, followed by Pidge, Hunk, Keith, Lance, Coran, and Allura at the rear. Lance couldn't see much through the sheer darkness of the hole but he was hit with a sense of claustrophobia crawling through the small tunnel.

It also didn't help his mind that he had Keith's ass in his face as the only thing he could really see. (He shouldn't have stared. It wasn't the time. But he did stare).

The walls of the tunnel were slick and damp. The sounds of scuffling echoed through the tunnels.

After what felt like an _eternity_ of crawling through the eerie darkness, Lance started to see light up ahead. They had to be getting close.

When Keith stood up to emerge, Lance felt like whooping for joy. He crawled out of the tunnel and flopped onto his back, panting and staring at the artificial lighting that hung from the warehouse ceiling above him.

"Hallelujah," he muttered as he stood up and dusted the dirt and dampness from his pants.

Reluctantly, he looked up. He had procrastinated on it. He didn't want to know what absolute horror awaited his sights.

Before him lay a plain warehouse. Lights hung from the ceiling. Shelves stockpiled with goods lined the walls with white Christmas lights strung between the shelves for extra lighting. A couple of gang members stood, wearing slanted hats that blocked their faces from view. They weren't actively holding weapons but they both had their hands too close to their utility belts for Lance's comfort. They were wearing all black clothing and Lance couldn't make out any features other than that.

He looked to Shiro who stood straight up and looked at the two guards with dignity, showing them that he was willing to fight.

Quickly, Lance glanced to Keith who was fidgeting with the chain around his wrist. Not with the lock, just with the chain. He was wrapping the slack part around and around his wrist and then would release it and let it fall slack again with a soft clatter.

Lance bit his lip nervously, returning his gaze to Shiro as he did so.

"FBI. We're here to see your leader."

Shiro didn't waste any time with formalities and explanations, instead just presenting his badge and striding up to one of the guards. The guard glanced at the badge and then at Shiro, slow to respond. Lance doubted that the guards had been trained on what to do if the FBI arrived and wanted to investigate people.

He glanced at the other FBI agent and noticed that he kept tilting his head towards Keith.

 _He remembers him_ , Lance's mind chimed in warning. He would have to watch that guard. He would have to imagine that the guard and Keith could... could attempt...

"U-uh..." the guard in front of Shiro muttered, "I don't know that we're really..."

"Now," Shiro growled authoritatively.

The guard winced and nodded. "Okay... okay. I'll... uh... take you there."

He turned around, glancing at his partner nervously.

Shiro pressed forward, not waiting to see if anyone in the team was ready or not.

Lance swallowed and started forward, after Shiro, Hunk, and Coran.

Unfortunately, Keith was still held up by something and wouldn't move. His arm was outstretched as though letting Lance continue onward himself, though that was impossible.

"Keith..." Lance said. He was going to add more, but... he didn't feel like anything else fit. Not after last night.

He was still amazed that that wasn't a dream.

And that he hadn't come out.

Lance had been certain that he was going to.

And yet he hadn't. For some reason he hadn't.

Keith glanced up at him, his narrowed eyes, sharp enough to slice through glaciers.

"Yeah," Keith muttered, pushing past Lance and jostling his shoulder as he passed by him, answering his unspoken question.

Lance checked that the chain was secured around his and Keith's wrists once again, pulling on it slightly, just in case.

Reluctantly, he went with the group following Shiro and the guard down the hallway.

Now that Lance thought about it, they probably should have left someone in the van or back at the BAU just in case something went awry.

But they all just walked in a large group.

Lance stared at the shelves passing by his head as they walked further and further down the hallway. He saw everything from rope to guns to jars of random liquids to precious metals. He was sure that the stuff was stolen. What kind of a gang was this anyway? Who would be this elite and perfect?

Keith stared at the ground, his hair dangling down and in his eyes as they walked further and further.

Lance saw an almost throne looking area ahead of them. There was a large rectangular table with wooden chairs that had designs cut into them or burned into them, designating each to a specific person.

There were a couple more guard looking members, maybe four from what Lance could see, along with one man who had his hat removed. The man was leaning on the table, looking at a large paper that was likely a map.

He looked up when they got closer. He was older than Lance had been expecting. Since he had kind of expected a group of teens and twenty year olds, a guy in his fifties was shocking. He had a wrinkled forehead and a mostly bald head with hair growing along the bottom/ back that was tied into a neat braid of white hair.

The man stood up, folding his hands behind his back. "Shiro," He said, looking at the leader of the group as they all got closer to the table.

The man's eyes flashed across all of them. Analyzing them, observing them. Lance shivered when his piercing golden eyes flicked up and down Lance's body.

 _Annoying creepy old dude..._

And then his gaze halted on Keith. His eyes narrowed. Keith inhaled, raised his chin and leered at the man.

The man didn't say anything but looked back to Shiro.

"Kolivan," Shiro said sharply, which Lance assumed to be the man's name.

"I thought we had agreed that you would never return here and we would never request that Keith join us again?"

Shiro inhaled. "Yes. That was our agreement. As long as you stayed within your code as well."

"We have," Kolivan replied sharply.

"Then explain the recent murders that have the _Marmoran_ symbol next to them," Shiro said brusquely.

"You know that we wouldn't do that," Kolivan growled, leaning forward, his arms crossed across his chest.

"I know that you have before," Shiro snapped back.

Lance felt like he should step in, but he was honestly too terrified to do anything.

"Oh?" Kolivan raised an accusatory eyebrow. "So all of the times you have killed mean nothing?"

"I didn't say that," Shiro said darkly. "And I seem to remember that it wasn't _us_ who specifically went too far."

There was a beat of silence and then Kolivan turned his head towards Keith, his head cocking to the side, "Really? As I remember it was _you_ who was the one to commit-"

"STOP IT!" Shiro roared, slamming his fist on the table. "You _know_ that isn't true!"

"Shiro!" Keith said sharply.

"I did always say he would make a good soldier," Kolivan announced.

Lance blinked. Did—? Had….? Had Keith….? Had he killed someone?

"That is _irrelevant_ ," Shiro growled.

"Come now, Shiro," Kolivan said, quirking his head to the side again. "I know that none of us are pure. I know that all of us have _stained_ souls."

"Keith has _more_ than atoned for whatever errors he may have made in the past," Shiro said slowly but with enough loaded venom to make anyone wary.

" _Shiro_!" Keith rumbled softly, warningly.

"Yes, Shiro," Kolivan leaned back on the table. "We are all gone. Now what was it you wanted to talk to me about?"

Lance swallowed. He could barely keep up with what was going on. He noticed Hunk and Pidge take a subconscious step away from Keith. Keith was glaring at Kolivan with a strange mix of emotions on his face. Anger, frustration, longing, regret, pain, horror... Lance didn't even know how many emotions.

"I came to ask why the Marmoran symbol is at the sight of every murder recently," Shiro asked, calmer but still on edge.

"You don't really believe that was us, do you?" Kolivan asked snidely. "Or... are you just out of ideas and this is the best thing that you can come up with?"

"Have any of your members left?" Shiro asked, ignoring Kolivan's questions.

"No," Kolivan replied curtly. "Since Keith, we lost one to a fire and that's it. We recovered a body so we know that he isn't miraculously alive."

"Then why is this unsub putting the target on _your_ backs?" Shiro all but shouted.

Kolivan looked at him, turned around, and walked towards the end of the table. He took a seat in the chair at the head of the table, one that was slightly larger than the rest and seemed clearly dedicated to the leader.

"I don't know, Shiro," Kolivan said politely. "What do you think I've been doing with my time, though? Frolicing through the city? No, we've been working diligently to try to find this imposter."

"Imposter?" Lance piped up.

And instantly regretted it.

The old man, Kolivan's, eyes were staring directly at Lance. He wanted to escape. He wanted to run away; to flee. But he couldn't leave his team.

"Yes, small one," Kolivan said silkily.

 _Small one?_ Lance's mind echoed. _What does that mean?_

"We have an imposter in our midsts. Do any of you have photographs of the crime scenes?"

Pidge raised a tentative hand, quiet and nervous for once.

"Ah, please show them."

Pidge pulled out a small laptop and typed it open and clicked several times until they found the file they were looking for. "Here," they swallowed and said softly. Nothing Pidge did was soft.

Pidge turned around the computer so everyone could look at a comparison of the three images together.

"You see this part?" Kolivan said, suddenly right beside them and pointing at the computer. "This isn't a part of our symbol. This extra branch that was placed on the outside rim? That isn't in our design. At first, I, too, thought that one of my members had betrayed us, but upon further inspection, I do not believe that to be the case."

Kolivan gestured to the large flag overhead that sported a black fabric with a bright purple symbol that was very similar to the ones found at the crime scenes. Lance wondered if he would have even noticed the change if he had not been told about it.

"So what does that mean?" Hunk asked softly. "Someone wants to blame the Marmora? Why?"

Kolivan chuckled darkly, "this may come as a surprise to you, but we are not exactly the most welcoming and friendly of groups and we very often have a plethora of enemies coming after us."

"Okay..." Lance murmured, not paying attention to the fear in his mind, "So we have someone who hates you and wants to pin these murders on you?"

Kolivan curled his lip in a way that was definitely _not_ a smile. "Precisely. Someone knows about us and has an agenda against us. Or..." he tilted his head again, "maybe someone has an agenda against someone whose wrist is chained up?"

"That is none of your business," Lance hissed. He didn't know where this protectiveness was coming from, but he stepped in front of Keith and glared at Kolivan.

"Lance..." Keith said.

Glancing behind him, Lance saw surprise on Keith's face, his eyes widened and his mouth agape.

"Oh?" Kolivan said softly. "I thought that you wanted to be alone, Keith. What's with this new protective person that I see?"

Keith swallowed.

"Back off," Lance snapped. He had no idea where this newfound confidence came from but he felt protective of Keith in a way he had never thought possible.

"Lance!" Shiro chastised.

"Shiro," Lance leveled his gaze at Shiro, "I know that you mean well, but I cannot understand how _this_ man can help us," he pointed at Kolivan while still keeping his gaze towards Shiro.

"I... I'm with Lance..." Hunk said softly, almost inaudibly. "How... what kind of information can we get from this man?"

"And can we even trust a word that comes out of his mouth?" Allura snarled.

"You can trust that he doesn't want to have us and our unsub on his back," Shiro told the group.

"Keith," Coran said slowly. "You... you worked with this man, correct?"

Keith nodded, not removing his eyes from Shiro, Kolivan, or Lance.

"Then... is he credible?" Coran asked Keith.

"You trust Keith that much?" Allura snapped.

"I trust Shiro," Coran corrected. "So if Shiro trusts Keith then, yes, I do as well."

"He is speaking a form of the truth," Keith said slowly. "Whatever he says, at its core, is true, but... otherwise, he'll deceive and manipulate, no problem."

Kolivan let out a hearty laugh. "I suppose that's true."

"So are we, the Marmora and the BAU, planning to work together?" Pidge asked. "Or are we separate?"

"I believe that we can both benefit from working together," Kolivan said smoothly.

"Have you had any new members join?" Shiro interrogated.

"A few. But you know how secluded and small our group is."

"Yeah, almost a hundred members is small," Keith muttered sarcastically.

"Oh come now, Keith," Kolivan said plainly. "We get our work done. We finish what we set out to do. We get the stuff. We get the info. What more do you want from us?"

"Nothing," Keith growled.

"Can I look in your member archives?" Pidge asked after a beat of silence had passed through the group. "I would like to… see if I notice anything out of the ordinary." They glanced at Keith and Lance knew that Pidge was intending to anagram the name that they and Keith had talked about.

Kolivan turned his gaze to look at them. "Alright."

"Are you requiring we give you something in return?" Shiro asked.

Kolivan paused. "No. This is something that, as I said earlier, would benefit both of us mutually. This time, there will be no price."

Shiro nodded.

"Would you care to follow Antok to our computer room?" Kolivan asked Pidge. A young looking guard with his face hidden like all of the others approached.

Pidge glanced at Shiro and said, "Hunk... come with me."

"Yep," Hunk nodded, though his voice sounded a little higher than normal.

The two of them walked briskly, side by side, as they followed Antok down one of the storage halls and off to a side room.

Lance wondered if Pidge was going to tell Hunk about the name or not.

"I would like to have a few words," Shiro said intently.

"Alright." Kolivan agreed.

"Allura, Coran, Lance... and Keith... Please look around and interview people as you see /slash deem necessary," Shiro said with a glance back to the group as he headed away with Kolivan.

He looked so tired.

Lance shook his head, they were all tired. It was just better that they got this out of the way.

None of them said anything. Coran did a small salute and turned around to head down one of the storage shelves to look for evidence. He had never been one to be good at interrogations, anyway.

Keith spun around, anger and determination flashing in his eyes. He strode past Lance, moving quickly and not bothering to do more than scowl. He swung his arms, fists clenched, as he strode away from Lance.

Instinctively, Lance grabbed onto his arm. "Whoa, whoa... dude."

"What?!" Keith snapped. Immediately, his voice softened and his eyes widened, his forehead relaxing. "Lance... I—I'm sorry."

"No..." Lance murmured, pulling Keith off to the side. Allura had already left to go investigate. "But... what's going on, man?"

Keith lowered his view."It... it's being back here."

Lance lowered his head, too. He still had his hand on Keith's arm. They were standing nearly chest to chest. Lance had to bite his tongue to keep from blushing.

Though, that was ridiculous.

"What happened here?" Lance asked softly.

"I was... I was so young..." Keith murmured. "When it all happened..."

* * *

Shiro~

"What do you want to talk about?" Kolivan asked almost pleasantly leaning against the wall but gesturing for Shiro to sit down in the only chair in the room.

"None of your members did it," Shiro said, choosing to remain against the wall by the door.

Kolivan raised an eyebrow but said nothing.

"None of you would be so… sloppy," Shiro gestured vaguely with his hand. "And while you might work in teams, you would probably attack in teams instead of just one person attacking."

"I'm glad that you don't suspect us. But might I ask: why?"

Shiro scowled. He wouldn't meet Kolivan's eyes. He had looked at most of the members but most closely he had looked at—

"You… you've profiled Keith," Kolivan whispered, realization donning on him. "After he left us, you were worried that he would snap. You had him profiled long ago."

"True," Shiro tried to shrug it off. "But, I profile most everyone when I first meet them."

"No," Kolivan whispered. "You don't profile us for the question _could_ we snap. You profile for _when_."

Shiro remained quiet.

"I'm right aren't I?"

"I didn't say anything," Shiro tried to protest.

"That's why you know that Keith didn't commit these crimes. He doesn't fit your profile. Or more accurately, the crime doesn't fit _his_ MO. His Modus Operandi."

"Do you want Keith to be a criminal?" Shiro asked abruptly. "Do you want him to go to jail? To go on trial? Because he isn't a killer. He isn't. He still is torn up inside over whatever happened when he was kicked out of here. What happened? Did he kill someone? Either way, it messed him up. And then watching me be almost killed hurt him even more. I doubt that you want to see a Keith where he loses me, or Matt, or Pidge, or Hunk, or even _Lance_. I don't think you want to know what that would be like. Because it can go one of two ways. One is where Keith takes that knife that you gave him and we find another dead body on our hands, and the other is where he takes that knife and we find that Keith isn't around to say hi anymore. I don't particularly want either option."

"Keith is a strong kid," Kolivan interrupted.

"Strong?" Shiro almost laughed a the comment. "Keith isn't just strong. He's smart, he's peristant, he's impulsive and quick. He is so many wonderful things. But I don't think that _any_ kid at that age should have to go through whatever _hell_ that he had to go through."

He heard his voice echoing in the room. Deafening silence fell over the room.

For once Kolivan was silent. Shiro bowed his head. "I'm so—"

"No," Kolivan said, his voice booming. "You're right. I don't want anything like that to happen to Keith. So what should we do?"

"We need to figure out who _knows_ about you and who would be against you."

"Plenty of people. Sure we do good but we aren't good people and the ways we do things may not be widely accepted by the populous," Kolivan shrugged.

"Yes, yes, the whole 'Robin Hood' deal," Shiro waved his hand. "I get that. But what I want to know is _who_ would know your symbol and what good it would do to leave it at the crime scene."

"I… I don't think that someone in a hospital would attack innocent civilians…. Maybe someone in a military base? Sometimes we gather weapons."

Shiro hated working with the Marmora. He didn't understand how Keith could work with them without feeling guilt over stealing and hurting people. Generally, the Marmora worked as a sort of backwater BAU. They would solve crimes themselves without going through the most… conventional methods. They would interrogate people like Batman and wouldn't be afraid if a few people got hurt or if a few places got robbed. Sometimes they would steal weaponry for who knows what and sometimes they would steal medicine to give to their 'clients' who Keith, at least, claimed were the type of people who they would want to help. People in poverty. People who were in hiding.

Because of Keith, and because of the, admittedly, good work that the Blades did, Shiro didn't shut them down. The agreement was that the Blades would help if and when they were able to while Shiro would let them keep going.

"But who would personally know you?" Shiro insisted.

Kolivan put a finger to his chin, resting his head pensively. "I… I'm not sure. I wish I was but… we've done so much. And if it has anything to do with the malls then I have no idea. I can't remember any kind of time when we robbed a mall. At least as a unit. We might have had a member here or there…"

"Has anyone in your group ever shown serial killer qualities?" Shiro pressed, desperate for anything that might help the case. _Anything._

"Possibly a few but I can't think of any and I have never been terrified enough that I would report them. And I do swear that: if I was scared for anyone, I would report them. I would do so in a heartbeat to protect my members and the populous at large."

Shiro nodded appreciatively, "None of the victim's killed were former blade members were they?" he asked.

"No," Kolivan responded simply.

There was a pause of silence.

Shiro wanted desperately to save Matt. He knew that he should keep pushing Kolivan to answer questions about both the murders, which had conveniently stopped after Matt had been taken, and Matt's kidnapping. He was terrified to his wits end what was going to happen to Matt.

But this was his chance. His one chance to figure out what happened.

"Can you tell me, please, what happened to Keith?"

Kolivan sighed. "I feel bad for the kid…"

* * *

Keith~

 _So young_.

He had come up to me.

Up to me.

I could see him. Kneeling beside me, taking my hand. Talking to me.

 _"How would you like to learn to use this?"_

He had asked me, a smile on his face.

And I held it.

I held it in my hand and pouted as I swung it around.

I nodded with determination.

Yes.

Yes, I would like that.

Very much.

And then...

And then I had held that knife...

And the blood.

 _Plip, plip._

I dropped it.

I had always had it.

So I picked it up.

But it was stained. Stained dark. Stained red.

 _"What have you done!?"_

He roared.

 _"Yes."_

 _"Yes, I would like that."_

Yes.

I would like that.

"Kolivan saw me watching him. I had been watching what he was doing for weeks. I thought it was so cool..." Keith told Lance softly.

He could see flashes of Kolivan and the other Marmora jumping from buildings with their treasure in their hands.

They were like modern day Robin Hoods.

And Keith wanted to be like them.

"And..." Keith inhaled sharply, "I wanted to become one of them. Become like their apprentice. I could find nothing to fault them with. They didn't do anything against the law… not really. Once I joined the BAU, I got it okayed with Shiro and, honestly? Half the time we worked together as one big group."

He refused to meet Lance's eyes.

He knew that he was watching.

This was the second time, it seemed, that he was pouring out his soul to this man. He didn't know what it was about Lance, but he just felt connected to him. He felt like Lance understood and could relate. Especially… especially after last night.

But that didn't mean he wanted to look up to see those beautifully brilliant blue eyes shining back at him with concern and understanding.

Because that was the odd thing about Lance.

He understood. Even if it wasn't spoken, he understood. Deeper than most any of the other team members.

And it was both terrifying and wonderful to experience.

Keith swallowed, preparing himself to continue. "At first, it was great. I had to train really hard to get into their group which was apparently super elite." He snorted out a soft laugh, "But I guess it did make the FBI's training much easier."

"So..." Lance said slowly, "What made them so... hostile towards you? I would think that if you worked with them they would be happy to work with you again. Am I wrong?"

"Yes and no," Keith sighed. "They _might_ accept a returned member if that member had a _very_ good reason for having left and then returned. But for the most part they wouldn't let you back... especially if you broke their code."

"Did you...?"

"Yeah," Keith sighed, "I broke their code. I was already gearing up to leave... but that did it for me. That was while I was still at the BAU so at least I had a... safe group I could go to, but it still... wasn't easy."

Lance waited a heartbeat before speaking, his voice so soft and quiet that it sent chills down Keith's spine. "Would you... would you tell me what happened?"

Keith nodded, inhaling deeply before he let the story out. "I was trying to get this... this medicine. One of our members, Thace, he was sick... but he was a former criminal and really didn't want to go to a hospital. He was a good guy, he really was, so we were trying to steal some medicine for him. Just for a couple of days... maybe he would get better? That's what we were hoping at least.

"I was assigned to the mission because of my agility and smaller size. It was a team mission. But... but I decided to go off by myself. I knew I could be more efficient and faster by myself than I could be in a group so it seemed like a good idea, especially at the time. Well... I walked into the hospital, grabbed the medicine, and then, as I was leaving... I'll spare you the details because honestly? I don't remember much of it. I know I was leaving. I was in an alleyway behind the hospital or something. This... this crazy drug addict came at me and I panicked."

Keith hung his head downwards, ashamed at what he had done.

"I... he came at me. I pulled out my knife…" Keith paused, gathering his breath before he forced the words past his lips, "I didn't mean to stab him in the gut."

"So you've..." Lance said almost thoughtfully.

"Killed?" Keith spat bitterly. "Most everyone on the team save for Hunk has killed someone." He paused staring at his hands. His hand with the cuff on it. The handcuff meant for criminals. "But yeah. I killed him."

"How... how old were you?" Lance asked softly.

Keith closed his eyes, trying to count back the years. "I... I was Eighteen."

"Wow," Lance whistled deeply. "How... how did you go through that when you were so young?" He ran a hand through his hair. Quietly, as though talking to just himself, he said "I was just coming out at that time. I can't imagine having to deal with the pressure of having just..."

"Yeah," Keith said, still staring at the cuff on his wrist. He thought he heard something about Lance coming out? But he wasn't sure... and at that moment, he really didn't care. "I guess I really should be wearing these cuffs," he spat bitterly.

"No," Lance placed a hand on Keith's shoulder. "If that was the rule, then I think this entire team, except for Hunk the cinnamon roll, would be in prison."

For the first time, Keith looked up at Lance. Lance and his beautifully pure blue eyes that looked like every blue flower had had their color squeezed out of them and condensed into his irises.

He was looking intently at Keith. "I don't think that, in this case, the killing was bad. I think it was self defense and just... necessary. You saved a life, didn't you?"

"No."

"Yes you did," Lance argued, crossing his , he gestured to where Keith was standing. "You saved yourself didn't you?"

Keith nodded but it felt half hearted and distant.

"So then... accept that it happened. You've done that, haven't you?"

Again, Keith nodded.

"Alright," Lance touched Keith's shoulder lightly and then let his hand fall back by his side. "That's the first step you have to take."

"What's the second step then?" Keith asked, his voice somehow a mix between softness and wryness.

He chuckled lightly, "I'm not really good at this... but I guess the second step would be being able to move past it. Just... keep going. All of us have done horrible things at one point in our lives or another and I guess you just have to keep going."

"Lance," Keith sighed, "I killed someone. Not even because he was a serial killer who was giving me no choice. I killed him because I panicked and he had been coming at me..."

"I know this might sound horrible,"Lance said lightly, "But I bet that that guy wasn't living a very good life. Being an addict really does things to your head."

Keith swallowed. It was the way that Lance said it. The way that he said it so… bitterly at the end. The way that his voice had a sharp bite to it. "Who…. who do you know who….?"

"My… uh… no one," Lance coughed into his hand, stepping back from Keith and averting his eyes. "We should… probably go look around or something."

"Lance," Keith said, not moving while Lance tried to walk away.

Lance stopped when he reached the end of the chain, not looking back at Keith. "Keith… I don't want to talk about this right now."

"Will you ever?" Keith asked. "As far as I can tell, you don't see like the type to talk about yourself much." Though, Keith didn't have much to say, considering he was the same way.

Lance was quiet. His head was downcast.

"Let's just start searching…." he muttered quietly.

Keith stared at Lance, deciding if he wanted to pressure Lance into talking to him.

Reluctantly, Keith moved forward, pushing past Lance and muttering "Fine," but not in a harsh way. In a way of reluctant acceptance.

Lance followed him. They moved forward quietly for some time before Lance said quietly, "Thank you for… for wanting me to talk. It means a lot to me…"

Keith didn't look at Lance. "Me too, I guess. Just… don't blackmail me please."

Lance snorted, "Alright so no telling Pidge?"

"Yeah, please don't tell them. Everyone knows the rough story but I prefer they didn't know the full story."

"Okay," Lance said softly. "I can do that."

* * *

Shiro~

"Keith was young," Kolivan started to say. "He was too young to be apart of our group or your group. It messed with him. But we can't change any of that now, and, besides, both of us are guilty of forcing that boy to do more than anyone should have to do at that age."

Shiro scowled but didn't argue. Kolivan was right after all. Their whole team was too young. They never really got a chance to live and they only suffered through trauma after trauma. But it was the life that each and every one of them had chosen, so it was the life that they all stuck to. And they stuck to it together.

"I think that that's a lot of what caused it," Kolvian said darkly. He didn't wait more than a moment before continuing, though. "I had sent him by himself on an easy stealth mission. It was nothing more than what he could handle, or at least what I thought he could handle, and it didn't involve hurting anyone or interrogations or hostages or anything like that. I just asked him to go steal some medicine for one of our members, Thace.

"Well, he stole the medicine. No hitch there. But when he was on his way back to us, this one drug addict was in an alleyway. I did go check out the body and, yeah, he was a drug addict.

"What Keith said is that the guy came at him and in a panic, Keith stabbed him."

Shiro nodded solemnly, breathing deeply to regulate his heartbeat. This was all like the rough story Keith had told him. He saw no difference. "So what's the problem?" Shiro asked, "We're all killers here. Keith acted in self defense."

"First of all," Kolivan told him, "we have a strict no killing policy."

"You'll just do everything to a person until they are on the brink of death, you just won't physically kill them."

Kolivan glanced at him but didn't show any signs of a agreeing or disagreeing. "Second, the man didn't provoke Keith. Keith was the one who felt panicked."

"Okay, so what happened?" Shiro asked, "And how did you find out?"

Kolivan's eyes narrowed. "There were witnesses. I just asked them. Believe me when I say that if I wanted to, I could have Keith imprisoned _very_ simply. But I wouldn't want that so, of course, I did everything I could to help him. I think that his connection to you guys is really what saved him."

Shiro nodded. He remembered when Keith had come back and had seemed so different. He wasn't the Keith who would make wry comments and jump into action at the first mention of it. He was the Keith who would stare, looking into himself and keeping his voice quiet. His hands had turned twitchy and his eyes would dart around.

He just wasn't the same.

And Shiro had decided quite a while ago, that he would accept this new Keith with open arms because that was what he _needed_. Shiro knew that Keith couldn't deal with being rejected from two of his families, so Shiro made sure that he was there in small ways. A hand on the shoulder, a bag of his favorite take out food, a small joke and reference to better times.

And that had helped him a lot.

Eventually he got better. He would make jokes with memelord Pidge again and he would smile and talk with the team more openly.

Even now, Shiro could see that Keith was doing a lot better. Heck, even being with Lance seemed to lighten his spirits, if just barely.

And looking at them made Shiro think of Matt. It made him think of when he and Matt would joke and banter and talk about things they liked and rant about things they disliked. It made him think of how much he loved when he and Matt would stay late at the BAU. When they would work so hard together, side by side, that they would fall asleep with their heads resting on each other's shoulders.

Shiro forced himself not to blush. He forced himself not to think of those times, to think of how much he had missed Matt when he left the BAU. He forced himself to not think about where Matt was right now and whether or not he was still alive. He forced himself back into the present.

And… he forced himself to not reevaluate his feelings on Matt. There wasn't time for that.

"This man though," Kolivan told him, "this man didn't provoke him. He was up against the wall, taking a snort of his drug when Keith walked by. The man didn't pay Keith any attention besides a nod. Something that I image was either a 'you want some?' or a 'we are both destined for hell' sort of nod."

Shiro sighed, understanding what Kolivan was saying. "So then why would Keith attack him?"

"I imagine that after robbing someone, Keith was feeling panicked and hyped on adrenaline. I bet that he knew that it was wrong and that the man didn't come after him, but afterwards, he forced his mind to imagine that the man had attacked him so that he could still be 'good' in whatever moral compass he has. He didn't want to be a killer. He didn't want to be the one to attack innocent people because they had been standing there, minding their own business-"

"Stop," Shiro interrupted. His eyes were closed as his mind swirled. It wasn't hard to wrap his mind around the scenario, but it was hard to think of Keith as being panicked enough to be okay with killing someone, or rather, to resort to killing someone as a first defense.

"Too much for you?" Kolivan teased. "Now you see why we let him go. He was too panicked. If he had continued on with us then he probably would have found himself slowly turning into the people he fought so desperately to capture."

"Enough," Shiro said again. "I've heard enough. Let's get on with the investigation."

Kolivan shrugged, "If you insist. Personally, I think that his story is fascinating. I can't wait to see how it ends."

Shiro resisted the temptation to growl at Kolivan. He resisted the temptation to pin him against the wall and force the answers out of him.

Shiro took a deep breath, letting his own panic and rage subside. "So what's the plan for finding out who murdered these people and who took Matt?"

.

* * *

Lance~

He should have told Keith.

It would have been easier to just get off of his chest. To for once talk about it and have someone who wouldn't judge him for still loving her.

Even though everyone told him he should just let her go.

"So…" Keith asked slowly as they walked down aisle after aisle of the warehouse storage stuff. Lance was shocked out of his own mind by Keith's voice. He didn't know how long they had been walking. All of the shelves of gems and weapons and bottles upon bottles of stuff passed by in a blur. They skipped walking through a couple of aisles of only file cabinets, not wanting to rifle through all of the papers. If the needed to, they had decided that they would get Coran to go through the files, instead. He had the motivation and endurance to do so.

As Keith spoke, Lance looked at him, his curiosity getting the better of him despite the fact that he knew Keith was about to touch on a sensitive topic.

"I was wondering… you said something earlier," Keith was speaking slowly, formulating his words with precision. Lance bit his lip nervously. "About… coming out—"

"Um," Lance interrupted awkwardly. He wanted to scream _NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE._

Keith looked up at him quizzically, his eyebrow quirked up, his lips parted slightly in anticipation.

Lance was sure that Keith would be accepting. Why wouldn't he be?

 _Because how can he trust his friends if his—_

 _Shiro was accepting_ , Lance reminded himself. _After he figured it out for himself_.

"I um…" Lance tried to start again. He wanted to say something. He felt like he should.

 _Why did I say that? Why did I slip up like that?_

"Lance… is there—"

"Keith," Lance interrupted again, his voice soft.

It wasn't like he wasn't proud to be bisexual. He was extraordinarily proud. He fully accepted that he liked both boys and girls. He just didn't want the rest of the team to reject him. He didn't want Keith to suddenly hate sleeping in the same bed as him because he thought that Lance was making a move on him.

Because there was no way that Lance would _ever_ fall for someone like Keith.

With those pretty grey-violet eyes. And that horrible mullet. And that sly smirk that he wanted to slap off of his face.

"It… I…" Lance tried to say. For some reason the words felt foreign in his mouth. He couldn't get himself to speak.

"Lance," Keith started again. "It's okay. You don't have to say anything. But… I understand."

And with that he walked onwards, Lance being forced to be pulled behind him.

 _What did Keith mean by that?_

Lance wanted more than anything to just blurt the words from his mouth. Why was it so hard for him to do just that?

They wandered down aisle after aisle, finding nothing of interest. Lance kept hoping for _something_ to break the awkward tension that had formed between them. They had been so calm and relaxed and _together_ just a moment ago. Why did Lance have to fuck everything up?

He scanned the shelves with renewed vigour, hoping for _something_ he could talk to Keith about. Anything.

And then Shiro the wonderful, amazing, saving grace rang on Lance's phone. He picked it up, relief filling his mind. "Lance, Keith, meet back at the main table. We're all gathering to go over info."

"Alright! You've got it boss," Lance said cheerily. He locked his phone and shoved it back into his pocket.

He turned to Keith and reported that Shiro was asking for them to gather together. Even Keith looked somewhat relieved to have something else to do other than walk in awkward silence.

They power walked down the aisles until they reached the table where everyone was gathered. Shiro and Kolivan were standing across from the table from each other, looking at a map. Allura and Coran were back but Hunk and Pidge were still gone.

"Alright, here's what's going on," Shiro started.

"What about Pidge and Hunk?" Allura asked, looking around nervously.

"Pidge is still working on researching and right now, we've lost enough time as it is, so we are going to work together now and let Pidge and Hunk work on researching. They think that they are getting somewhere, so that's good."

"That is good," Coran said cheerily, stroking his mustache.

"What did you find out, Shiro?" Keith said. Lance noticed him glance briefly at Kolivan as though barely acknowledging that he was there.

"Regretfully, not much,"Shiro sighed. "As far as Kolivan and I found, there have been no recent occurrences within the members that would indicate a serial kidnapper or a kidnapper. No one is especially mad at Keith that we know and the previous members have no reason to be suspected. What we did find out, is that this unsub is likely not one of the blades. The Marmoran mark that has been left at all of the crime scenes does not entirely fit the image that the Marmora uses."

Shiro pulled up a picture of the mark left in blood on the ground and motioned to an extra line protruding from it versus the mark that was on the Marmoran flag hanging over their heads.

"So then, we don't have any leads?" Lance asked half-heartedly.

"Not particularly," Shiro admitted. "Kolivan and I did agree to begin working together on this case to do everything we can to find Matt. He likely on't last another day if he is even still alive now, as we speak."

There was a pause of silence.

And then Keith spoke up.

"Shiro… do you remember your time being captured?"

Lance took in a sharp breath, waiting to see what Shiro would say.

"I remember being weak, and tired, and beaten and battered. But after my arm was hurt so badly, I don't remember much. Hunk might remember more than me, but he got a pretty bad concussion so it's doubtful. Why do you ask?"

"I… Lance and I were thinking that maybe the unsub who took Matt… is the same one who took you and Hunk."

"Keith," Shiro said skeptically. "Didn't that unsub take and send videos of us being tortured?"

"Yes..."

"Well, I don't think that we've received any videos and that was a very core part of this unsub's MO. He wouldn't just cut out that part of his-"

"Well," Keith argued. "It would make sense that Matt would be targeted for being the first one to free you two. Plus, last time Pidge and Matt and I found an anagrammed name. That's what Pidge has been searching for in the Marmoran files."

"Keith," Shiro sighed, a look of surprise still on his face. "I know that you want to catch him, but I really don't think that—"

"Why?" Lance asked suddenly, interrupting Shiro. He lowered his head immediately, realizing what he had said and how he had said it. He shouldn't continue. He should respect Shiro's thoughts and leave it at that. But for some reason he couldn't. "Why couldn't it be that unsub? His MO was about psychological torture on the team. That's why he sent those videos. This time, he is torturing us with knowing Matt is gone and with the mall murders because we don't know which to focus on so our attention is divided and we are scrambling around like chickens with our heads cut off. At least to me, that is psychological torture."

"Lance," Shiro said deeply.

"I mean," Lance continued, unable to close his mouth and just _shut the fuck up_ , "just look at you. You look like shit, Shiro. I'm sorry to say it, but you do. I think that it would be in our best interests to at least _consider_ the possibility."

" _Lance_ ," Shiro said again, much more sharply.

Lance bit his tongue. He looked down at the ground, not daring to meet anyone's gaze.

Shiro started talking about the mission and their next step as a team, once again, but Lance felt too numb to listen. He couldn't make himself focus. Everything in his mind just felt like it was under one huge haze and there was no waking up from it.

And then he felt the warm touch of Keith's fingers on Lance's elbow. Lance gasped in shock and turned to see Keith right next to him, staring intently into Lance's eyes.

And Lance felt caught in his gaze. Captured. Entranced. Those grey eyes seemed to glisten with knowledge, understanding, and care. And maybe… maybe appreciation? Had Lance actually gotten through to Shiro? Would he consider Keith's idea? Or was his idea just too difficult for Shiro to fathom? It made perfect sense in Lance's mind. But then again, he hadn't been there, on either end of the ordeal.

And he hoped that neither he nor anyone else ever would be on the other end of that line.

But staring into Keith's eyes, Lance felt like he actually made a difference. He felt like they were sharing a secret that only they knew. Such as when Lance was five and his older brother would lean down to him and whisper _'It's our secret okay? Shhhh…_ " in the way that made Lance feel like he was special in the world and like he had the most important task ever.

He felt that way now with Keith. He felt like he was the only person who was completely on Keith's side and would be willing to support him through anything.

Lance hated how, even earlier that morning, he had been touching his gun in worry at what he would have to do if Keith turned on him. But there was no need to worry about that because there was no way that Keith would ever turn on him. Not after all that Lance had heard that day and the last.

Shiro had started talking again. Lance forced him mind back into the present, forced himself to listen, to try to catch up on what Shiro was saying.

He was telling them that they would need to go talk to the families of the victims and see if the murders at the mall were personal, whatsoever. And maybe go back to Matt's work and interview the suspects again.

"But we didn't think that they were the unsub!" Keith protested.

"True, but it is the best idea we have."

"They didn't tell us anything," Lance argued. He thought about Rolo and his calm cool attitude and then he thought about Nyma and how adorably pretty she was.

And then Lance looked back at Keith and his stupid-ass mind started thinking about how pretty Keith was.

Nyma and Rolo weren't the unsubs. They didn't have the right attitude and they didn't _act_ like they were being interviewed by the FBI.

It was still a good idea to go interview the families, not that Lance wanted to.

Still… his mind started turning as he thought back to how Nyma and Rolo had acted. They were so coordinated and seemingly together.

The idea of more than one unsub…

The idea of a team...

"What if we're after a team?" Lance asked suddenly.

The room was quiet. Allura was the first to speak. "Lance, we already established that we think there is a team based on that mall video footage we found."

"But we didn't think about the idea that we have one unsub _leading_ a team," Lance said, getting a bit more excited. "We thought about the possibility that there might be a team but we thought it was mutual. What if it isn't?"

"The unsub that took Shiro and Hunk was by himself, though. You could tell from the videos he sent that he was moderating his voice and clothes while still filming the videos. They were made to look homemade and cheesy."

"I really doubt that the same unsub would have made a team group and be out for revenge after all of these years," Shiro insisted.

"Well… maybe we could look at these videos?" Allura suggested. "Then maybe we would see if he is talking to anyone or if he is displaying any of the same parts of our current unsub's MO?"

"We would have to ask Pidge," Keith said thoughtfully. "They stored all of the videos but they buried them deep within their computer so no one would find them."

"I think we should look at the videos," Lance added, raising his hand in a vote. He raised his chained hand so, even though there was enough slack, Keith would raise his arm up as well. Allura raised her arm slowly followed by Coran who was tentative in agreeing.

Shiro sighed, "Alright."

"Maybe you and Hunk shouldn't watch, though," Keith suggested. "I don't know that you want to see all that you went through…"

"No," Shiro said adamantly. "It is even more important that Hunk and I watch, if were able, because as much as I don't want to remember that time, we might be able to remember something that we currently cannot."

Lance heard Keith swallow thickly. He took a step back, having stood so close to Lance the whole time the team was talking. "Yeah. I just don't want you to… have to remember it if you don't have to."

"But I guess now we will remember."

"But Pidge is working on trying to analyze the names and histories of the Marmoran members, right?" Lance asked.

"Yes," Coran replied first.

"So maybe it would be better if we investigated something else while we leave Pidge and Hunk to work for a few hours," Lance suggested.

Shiro nodded. "Yeah, good idea, Lance. We've already checked out the malls, but maybe we could go back to Matt's work?."

"No, I really don't think that any of them have a clue to be found," Keith argued.

"We still need to go talk to the victims' family," Allura suggested. "No one likes it, but we do need to find out what's going on and if they have any relation to the murderer."

"Maybe we could ask Hunk to come along with us and someone can stay here with Pidge," Lance suggested. "Then he could anagram names or look stuff up while Pidge can stay here and work?"

"I'll stay," Shiro sighed. I have some things I want to talk to them about this case, see if I can catch them up. You guys should do the same for Hunk."

Everyone nodded in agreement.

"I'll go send Hunk and then," Shiro told them. "After that, you guys should head out. Make sure to be kind to the families you are talking to."

"Aye Aye, captain," Coran saluted and the others nodded as Shiro turned to leave.

* * *

Shiro~

Shiro turned away from the group and started walking towards where Pidge was. He knew his way and didn't need an escort, against Kolivan's insistence.

Shiro walked slowly towards Pidge and Hunk. He didn't especially want to talk to Pidge about what was going to happen. He didn't want to make _anyone_ relive those memories. Especially Hunk. Hunk remembered more about it than Shiro did.

But before he was really ready, he had reached the door to the computer room. Reluctantly, he wrapped on the door with his knuckles, lightly, almost hoping they wouldn't hear him.

"Yeah?" Hunk asked through the door. Then he opened it and smiled, "Hey, Shiro! Did you guys find anything?"

"No," Shiro sighed bitterly. "Another dead end."

Hunk smiled warmly at him, placing his hand on Shiro's arm comfortingly. "We'll find him. If anyone can, we will find him."

Shiro nodded and said a halfhearted "Yeah." He felt like a little child who had just lost a prized possession.

"And, hey," Hunk whispered, leaning a bit closer, "These guys found _us_. We'll find him."

Shiro smiled and pulled away from Hunk, stepping past him into the room. He had no idea the horrible irony of the statement he had just said.

"What's up?" Pidge asked quickly, typing away on their computer at faster speeds than seemed humanly possible.

"We have a new change of plans," Shiro announced. "Hunk, you're needed back with the other group. You guys are heading out while Pidge and I stay here."

"Where are we going?" Hunk asked as he pulled the door open again.

"The others will brief you on what's going on," Shiro assured him.

"Okay, Hunk said uncertainty. "Bye Pidge, Shiro." and without further question, he left.

SIlence fell between Pidge and Shiro with only the sound on Pidge's intense typing penetrating the silence.

Suddenly, Pidge spun around in their chair, their head supported by their arm on the table. "So, captain, I know you're here for a reason. What is it?"

"Aren't you working?" Shiro asked, not particularly wanting to talk to Pidge about everything. "Keith told me about the anagrammed name and his theory on our unsub."

"Mmm.," Pidge hummed dully. "Yeah, but stuff is loading and anagramming and junk. And I can't exactly work with you staring at me. Sorry."

Shiro smiled but he knew that it was forced. "You're right. The group was talking and Keith came up with a new theory. Everyone agreed with its plausibility. Even Lance and Allura."

Pidge gave a sideways smile, "Lance and Keith do seem to be getting closer, even in these few days. And, Gasp! Allura acknowledging Keith?"

"I know," Shiro laughed softly. "But… I think it's because none of them knew what it was like so it seemed plausible enough. Keith was the only one who knew what he was talking about. And I guess me too. We're all grasping at straws."

Pidge nodded, thier amber eyes never leaving his.

"Keith… he thinks that maybe the person who abducted Matt is the same unsub who abducted me and Hunk."

Shiro held his breath, waiting for their shock or worry or _something._

And then he heard a light chuckle. Shiro forced his gaze to look at Pidge. They were smiling and chuckling to themself, though Shiro knew they didn't really find it funny.

Just as suddenly as they started laughing, they stopped and looked Shiro dead in the eye. "And you doubt that?"

Shiro was caught off guard. He spluttered, trying to think of something to say. Did he doubt it? Did it make sense? Or did he just want to protect Matt from the horrors that he and Hunk had to go through? Every time he saw Hunk, he noticed the headband that Hunk had tied around his forehead, hiding his scar. Shiro wasn't so lucky.

He clenched his metal fist.

"I didn't think about it… and I guess I hope that it isn't true."

"But," Pidge looked away from Shiro for the first time, their eyes moving to the tiny widow that was barely able to show a stream of sunlight. They looked distant and far away, lost in their own brain. "No matter how you look at it, it holds a kind of twisted irony. We get to save two of our members but we lose one a while later, or in an act of revenge, we are able to catch the the unsub who's been terrorizing all of us in our nightmares for years."

Shiro swallowed thickly.

Pidge was staring out the window. They were quiet. The silence between Shiro and Pidge felt like a vast, eerily silent and still ocean. Shiro wanted to cross it but he found himself anchored in place.

"Do… do you think he suffered?" Pidge asked quietly.

Shiro had never heard such a voice of anguish. Their voice trembled and cracked as they spoke, barely above a whisper.

Shiro swallowed. He saw how Pidge's hands were clenched into fists, trembling with emotion.

Pidge turned towards him, and Shiro saw that they had a steady stream of tears slipping down their cheeks.

"Shiro, do you think he suffered?" they repeated, their voice louder. More like the cry of a wounded animal.

Shiro tried to speak, but only a gasp of breath came out of his chest. A sob.

Shiro fell to his knees, staring at the floor, his own tears slipping out of his face.

"Yes," he said softly, ever so softly.

He heard Pidge choke out a sob.

Then a thump as they slipped out of their chair and onto their knees on the ground.

"Do.. do you think he got to hug mom?" they sobbed into their hands, trying desperately to wipe the tears from their face.

"Yes," Shiro croaked out. "Yes, I do Pidge. I bet that he woke up, clean and not in pain. I bet all of his scars and wounds and blood was gone. I bet that he woke up and he saw her there in front of him and she wrapped her arms around him and hugged him tightly to her."

Shiro hadn't even known what kind of a pain that loosing Matt would feel like. But he felt like his whole body had been sapped of energy. He felt empty. He felt like his whole mind had been flooded and was dying and bursting all at once. Like a firework of emotion in his head.

Slowly, shiro shifted towards Pidge. He grabbed them by their shoulders and pulled them towards him until they were sitting in his lap. Shiro stroked their short hair, sobbing himself, and Pidge cried into Shiro's arm.

"The last thing… the last thing Matt and I did was argue," Pidge gulped. They sobbed between breaths and words, a rough choking sound escaping from their throat. "Like a stupid fucking movie cliche Matt and I were arguing and if I hadn't been so mad at him, maybe I would have come home sooner. Maybe I would have seen his terror. Maybe I would have been able to _find him_."

Shiro swallowed thickly, the anguish he felt spilling out of his eyes, same as Pidge.

"Pidge, he knows that you love him."

"I— I don't want him to have suffered," Pidge choked into his arm. "If only I had—"

"You couldn't have done anything."

They were quiet. They held his arm and Shiro held them. Both of their sobs died down to steady silent streams of tears. Outside the window, Shiro noticed a black bird land on the ground and look into the window. He and Pidge watched the bird silently, watching the small creature as it flew away into the sky, out of their sight.

After several minutes of sitting in silence, their breath labored and both of their eyes puffy, Pidge leaned their head to rest on his chest. Softly, they whispered, "Do you think that there's any hope?"

Shiro took in a breath.

Quietly, he whispered, "Yes."

He wanted to say more. He wanted to elaborate on what he was talking about. He wanted to talk about there being hope. But he found that he didn't have a voice. He found that he was silent and he was unable to speak any of the thoughts circling through his head.

"Okay," Pidge breathed.

Equally softly, Pidge whispered, "You know that Matt loved you."

Shiro didn't believe what Pidge had said. It was such an unusual thing for them to say, especially at a time like this, and in that calm, quiet tone.

And Shiro surprised himself by saying, "I figured that out a couple days ago."

"Okay," Pidge whispered. "He told me to never tell you. But I think that he would want you to know."

Shiro nodded.

Quiet.

Serene.

"Pidge, he loved you too. More than anything."

He could feel Pidge smile against his arm. Another tear slipping down their cheek.

"I know," they choked out softer than a breath. "I know."

.

.

.

Matt~

"Would you like some water?"

Matt turned his head to the side, rejecting the creature's offer.

"No?" the creature clicked it's tongue disapprovingly. Matt tensed his body, preparing for—

 _SMACK_

And there it was.

Matt was knocked to the floor, his head hitting hard, his arm twisting horribly from the chain that suspended it against the wall. Slowly, Matt pushed himself up from the floor, leaning his head back against the wall.

He glared at the creature through his squinting and swollen eyes.

"Now would you like some water?"

Matt gathered the blood and mucus in his mouth and spat it at the creature, the vile glob landing just below the eye. The creature didn't wipe it off but instead leaned closer, smiling widely, "I said, would you like some water?"

Matt glanced at the crystalline glass with a simple blue straw in it and glistening water sloshing along the surface. His mouth felt so dry. Sealed shut with pasty mucus and blood.

But it would be easier to just let his body starve of water.

So he bent his head down, not bothering to look at the creature again.

He was sick of its face anyway.

Rough and calloused fingers tickled the side of his face, brushing at the edges of his hairline. "If you don't drink, then you won't last long. I had better fix that."

The hand pressed against Matt's forehead and pushed his head backwards, pounding it against the wall with force enough to knock the breath and all coherent thought out of Matt's brain. With his head pushed back, the creature started to pour the vile water down Matt's throat, the straw fell out and poked him in the eye. Water flooded his mouth.

Matt fought against the hand holding him up. He choked and gagged as more and more water was forced into his mouth. His nose. His eyes.

He wretched, his whole body heaving against the water like he was drowning. He couldn't breathe and the water just kept coming and coming and coming and never stopping.

He choked and heaved, his whole body convulsing.

 _Air._

 _AIR._

He just needed air!

And right as he thought he couldn't take another moment of the water, it stopped.

Matt fell down to the ground in a crumpled heap, coughing his lungs up. In between gulps of air, he coughed and wretched, even throwing up empty liquid bile down his shirt front.

"Ungrateful," the creature scoffed, knocking Matt across the side of the face.

He gagged up another mouthful of bile and blood and spit it out onto the ground.

Even a few hours ago, he would have looked up at his captor spitefully. He would have spit in the creature's face. He would have snarled in disgust and practically begged his captor _what more can you do to me?_

But now, he merely closed his eyes and focused on taking in one sharp, rancid, painful breath of air at a time.

"Pathetic," his captor snarled.

Matt subconsciously tensed his muscles waiting for the pain of the hit.

But after a couple of breaths and nothing happening, Matt opened his bleary and unfocused eyes.

By the time that he finally managed to blink his eyes into working again, his captor was gone.

Matt wouldn't let himself let out a relieved sigh. How could he be relieved? He knew that his captor would just return in a couple of hours, back for more torturing.

He knew that he couldn't escape.

And he had lost all hope of rescue long, long ago.

His mind flashed to his friends.

Pidge. Pidge his wonderful, wonderful sibling. He remembered their sly smile as they would stay up late on the roof of their house, both of them talking about the stars and computers, finding comfort in each other. He remembered the fight the two of them had had, just before…. And how he wanted nothing more than to wrap them up in his arms and tell them how sorry he was.

He thought of how soft and kind Hunk was. And he couldn't help but think of seeing the big guy down here, tortured just as Matt was. Tortured to near-death.

He thought of Keith, one of his best friends who would watch shows with him and lighten his mind after the case. Keith who had helped him be the only support Matt could find (along with Pidge) when Hunk and Shiro were captured.

And then, oh god, Shiro.

Shiro who Matt had never told how he feels. Shiro who Matt had pined after for years and still was lost in love for.

Shiro who had gone through so much.

Shiro with his kind smile and his wonderful laugh and his bright eyes.

Shiro who was so kind and caring and accepting.

And Matt would never see him again. He wouldn't get to see any of them again. He would die here alone, covered in vomit, blood, sweat, and tears with his arm chained above his head and his mouth still dry, even after all of the water that had just been plunged into it.

He would die.

Now, it was just a matter of when.

* * *

Note: Please tell me if anything was off or whatnot!

Also leave a comment if you liked this chapter! I love hearing your feedback.


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